Rain That Flew in Sideways
May 24, 2004
In the past few days we’ve been experiencing torrential downpour here in the East. When I woke up this morning and looked out the window I thought I had woken up to that part in the Wizard of Oz when the tornado wrecks havoc on Dorothy’s farm.
I also kept thinking of a line in Forrest Gump, when Tom Hanks as Forrest is trudging through the Vietnam landscape, and mentions in one his letters that there was;
Little bitty stingin’ rain… and big ol’ fat rain. Rain that flew in sideways. And sometimes rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath.
Due to the severity of the weather I decided to take the streets instead of the highway and hydroplaned through several puddles almost taking out a serviceman on the side of the road. At this same point in time I glanced back in my rearview mirror and noticed the cherries blazing in the distance. At first I thought I had been speeding, but discounted that fear when I realized I was driving just a smidge over 20 MPH.
Then the cop, who was going faster than a speeding bullet, almost sideswiped that same serviceman who I nearly decommissioned. Not that it was particular funny or anything, but I was reminded of an 80’s movie where the disgruntled city worker shakes his fist at the passing cars as Talking Heads’ Burning Down the House plays in the background.
6 comments
The weather’s been fun lately, indeed. We didn’t have to leave the house, so we just enjoyed the killer lightnings.
by Jarek Piórkowski on May 24, 2004 at 11:41 am. #
Last week we had five days of continous, nonstop rain in Paradise. Now, we’re in the middle of rainforest and all, but it never rains for five days in a row nonstop. It was getting on my nerves.
Now we finally have sunshine again.… on a Monday, stuck at work.
by beto on May 24, 2004 at 11:41 am. #
Oh, and nice picture. Too bad I forgot to take any. Plus, our camera’s pretty crappy.
by Jarek Piórkowski on May 24, 2004 at 11:42 am. #
Jarek: The thunder and lightning here has been louder than I’ve ever remembered. I must’ve jumped about 4–5 times last night not anticipating the loud clash and sudden vibration. Although, I will say that the lightning was very cool last night.
When I was driving my daughter over to my inlaws there were random spurts of light on the street. It was awesome.
Beto: 5 days of nonstop rain? Wow. I think I would go mad, or at the very least, “Coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs”. Since you’re in the middle of the rainforest, what’s your take on these ‘Save the Rainforest’ campaigns? My friends from Brazil say it’s all political fluff, mentioning that there is plenty of rainforest to go around.
Also, completely unrelated to this conversation, but, I finally incorporated graphical headers for the sidebar and used Mike Rundle’s Accessible Image Replacement technique.
by kartooner on May 24, 2004 at 12:23 pm. #
Now that’s a different story. Even though I do get scared by loud sudden noises very easily, I didn’t jump. Although the entire sky was illuminated multiple times, there was always a reasonable delay between the lightning and the thunder and the latter was more of a growling kind.
Rochester is right on Lake Ontario, correct? That might be part of the reason why, Welland’s in the middle of the Niagara Peninsula, at least 20km to closest lake (Erie).
Regarding image replacement, I found Literary Moose’s mindchild to be very innovative, although it sadly might not work everywhere: http://my.opera.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=46162
by Jarek Piórkowski on May 25, 2004 at 11:35 am. #
Yes, Rochester borders the edge of Lake Ontario, which results in frigid winters, not to mention intense rain and wind storms.
The thunder was loud. I can’t even begin to describe it, but the closest analogy (or example) I can think of is that it sounded like the military was testing explosives.
The technique I used for Image Replacement essentially offsets the text –1000 pixels, meaning the text is actually there, it’s just offscreen. The benefit of this technique is that when the stylesheet is turned off (or not in use) the text remains in it’s default position. The stylesheet designates the text offset, so when a stylesheet isn’t used, the text remains static.
by kartooner on May 25, 2004 at 11:47 am. #