Day 113 - 06/13/2007

I love summer as it allows me to get in free exercise while heading to and from work on my bike. The ride home, however, was another matter altogether.

The thing about riding in the summertime is that you run the risk of getting caught in a thunderstorm on the way home. Today was no exception. The forecast was for the thunder boomers to come through around 530p, but at 330p, the sky darkened and it became very threatening looking out my window. Curse words were flying about the sky.

That's it, I'm out of here I said to myself and quickly changed for the ride home. Heading outside, though, the sky to the West was a different story. There were rows of clouds heading East like waves heading towards the beach, but between the rows, the sky was blue. Maybe I had overreacted. I had pulled the trigger, though, so I headed home as planned.

As I headed down Stonecroft, I noticed the sky to the East become even more ominous. Instead of continuing in an easterly direction, the clouds shifted back to the southwest, coming directly into my path. By the time I crossed over 28, lightning began flashing in the distance. This only forced me to pedal harder. I had 12-15 minutes before I was home and if I dawdled, I wasn't going to make it before the rain began falling.

By the time I passed St. Tim's, the lightning had become more frequent. I turned back at Poplar Parc and sought refuge in the church while the storm passed. Just as I made it inside, the clouds opened up: the rain came down in buckets, thunder crashed and lightning flashed. I made the right decision in turning back. (I found out the next day that one of my colleagues had seen a tornado out his office window. Fortunately, no damage was done and it dissipated in less than a minute.)

After waiting out the storm (and getting some prayers in since I was there), I got back on my bike 20 minutes later and finished my ride home without further difficulties.

That was the first of a few fronts to come through the area. The second one came right at the end of N's t-ball game. We were rushing the kids to get through the game as the sky again turned ominous. There's a strict rule on ending the game when thunder or lightning is heard or seen, but that never happened. Instead, the rain held off until the end of the game when it started sprinkling, turning into a full down-pour as most of the players were getting in their cars. (As for N's play, I used the same trick as last week and it worked for a second time in a row. He played well in the field and got three good hits.)