Torrential Rain

If you've never lived down south, I'm not sure you can appreciate the torrential rainstorms that we have (at least I never experienced anything like it when I lived up north). I'm not talking about tropical storm or hurricane type rain (that is definitely intense), but regular-old-afternoon-rain storms. It's like walking under a waterfall and drainage is so bad that it quickly pools till parking lots become ankle-deep lakes.

Well, we had one of those rains today. Since it happened when I was with my mom, it reminded me of another time she and I were caught in one of those rain storms....

It was several years ago and we had decided to meet Amy M. for an afternoon movie. The rain was coming down in buckets and we only had one umbrella. I hopped out of the car and went around the other side to get my mom out. Water was calf deep (if not deeper) and we were shuffling along together in that awkward umbrella dance where you try to keep both your heads under a little umbrella. I'm not sure why we were even bothering considering rain was flying at us from all directions and within seconds of being outside the vehicle we were drenched.

My mom, who was a newbie to these kinds of rains, kept screaming, "oh my god, oh my god" over and over. We had only made it about 10 feet when she bailed. "I can't make it," she declared in defeat, turning and sloshing back to the truck. Thinking this a wise decision, I decided to turn tail and run myself!

I got back to the truck, but got stuck attempting the tricky maneuver of getting back into the vehicle and closing the umbrella at the same time. (FYI: I still have not mastered this. I always end up half in, half out with my arm and umbrella stuck outside and rain pouring in. If there's a trick to this that anyone could share, please let me know.) Then the wind caught the umbrella and whipped it inside out. Now I was completely defenseless and struggling to somehow get the mangled umbrella into the truck without losing an eye.

My mother (ever the pragmatist) screams "leave it, just leave it!" I threw it into a heap, abandoning it forever to the murky depths of the Sawgrass Mills parking lake, and finally jumped inside. My mom was soaked. I was ...is there a word for beyond soaked?... saturated? The inside of the car looked like a wave of water had rolled through it. We were laughing so hard that I almost peed my pants. Who knows, I might have? I was too wet to notice anyway!

Needless to say, we had to call Amy and tell her we couldn't make it. She (armed with boots, rain jacket, and umbrella) was fine and watched the movie alone. Sorry again for that, Amy! Makes for a good story though.

For Pete:
I did my best to convey the humor of the situation, but it's kind of one of those "you had to be there" moments. Sorry if the story wasn't "captivating" enough!