Fetch me an ark

Sorry I've been out of touch dear readers. It's been a tough week. I've been freaking out a bit over my situation. I did get one writing gig that pays $75 a week so that was something and it kept me busy but it's certainly not enough to live on. Anyway, let me tell you about my trip to the dentist.

As I mentioned, the remnants of the last hurricane were stirring up a storm front. It poured in the morning but by the time I had to leave it had tapered to a drizzle. Unfortunately when I got to my car I discovered I had left the window cracked. The good news is there was a truck right next to me so the seats weren't overly soaked. The bad news is the whole car was damp and smelled kind of moldy. Nonetheless, I soldiered on and the ride over in a stinky car wasn't so awful.

The appointment went great. I really do love this dentist and all the staff. I didn't get to see Danny because he just had surgery and will be out for a while, but the hygenist rocks. Easiest teeth cleaning I've ever gone through.

We were almost done when one of the assistants came in, freaking out because the next wave of rain had arrived and they had just announced they were closing roads because of the flooding. Of course, I'm in windowless room, so I can't see just how bad it is until I get back to the waiting room. It was pouring buckets. I waited a few minutes to see if it would break but no luck so I raced through the parking lot, getting soaked in the process. It was a humid rain, so as soon as I got inside, the windows immediately fogged up like teenager's car on lover's lane.

Eventually, I got on the road but I didn't get more than a mile or so when the really big rain came. I used to wonder how people could get stuck in huge pools of water on the road. I mean, who would be dumb enough to drive into the middle of a standing lake? Now I understand.

Forget buckets. It was more like a dump truck constantly emptying its load on the windshield. I mean, even with the wipers on high, you get a bare glimpse of the road between swipes and the ground is so hard here that the roads flood instantly and there's no way to tell how deep the next puddle is going to be. It was so bad I tried pulling over three times and waiting out the deluge, but the rain was coming in bands that crossed my route, so every time I got a few more miles down the road, I would again suddenly find myself in flood city.

Astoundingly, I managed to get almost the way home without hitting a major puddle, mainly because the road is lightly travelled and when the cars in front of me hit a wave spitting whopper, I had enough leeway to drive around it. I didn't make a major splash until I got back to town. It was a really big pool and deceiving. It was on the flat and didn't look deep but the resulting wings of water came all up to the windows. Still the car didn't stall and the rain abruptly stopped right afterwards.

So it was a white knuckle drive that ended well enough and on the bright side, on one of my little layovers, I discovered gas for $3.42 a gallon. It's cheaper in the big town generally, but the going rate even there was between $3.53 and $3.60 so what I saved on the fill up probably paid for the ride. I think the spirits are testing my dental resolve with the bad weather on my appointment days, but apparently that was my reward for passing the test.