A Past Rainy Day

I'm sitting here at the computer keeping an eye on my potatoes. I don't want them to boil over. So, while I'm here anyway...

I was thinking about a previous January 4th. I don't remember which year it was, but it had to be nearly 15 years ago. While today the rain was only threatened, on this January 4th the rain was coming down in torrents.

What I remember most is driving in that mess. I had spent the day over at my father's. But come dusk I had to leave and go to my retail job. I suppose I could have just called in sick--I was having a massive migraine--but I was being responsible and I went in anyway. And a drive that should have taken no longer than a half hour took me nearly twice as long.

To keep myself entertained I renamed all the streets. The rain was so bad that they were no longer streets. They were lakes. So, that's what I called them--Lake Brookhurst or Lake Harbor (streets in Anaheim, CA, in case you're interested). And I had to be careful to stay on the dry parts of the street. I was afraid that I'd get stuck in the flood waters.

All of this turned out to be a pointless waste of time. There was no one in the store that night. More than half the employees called in "sick", and we had maybe three customers. Oh wait--I was one of those sales. That makes it two customers. Not enough to merit even having the lights on, I'd expect.

I'm no longer in that job or even in that city. And it looks like the promised rain has finally started up. All I've got planned is to finish dinner and to start on my next knitting project. But this time of year I often think of that January 4th. This time, I get to watch the rain and not be in it.