poukledden

Well, I got most of the way.

And then turned back, booking like hell, because what had seemed like distant lightning was suddenly right overhead, and the storm was comin' in like bats out of Hell, and suddenly -- THE FUCK?! -- from all sides. I mean, really, all sides? It's puttering along somewhere to the Northeast and suddenly it's doing the Cloverfield Dance of Destruction from all sides?

I didn't make it. I got through campus and onto Park and BOOM. Wet, wet, wet. The whole neighborhood between Speedway and Grant lost electricity, and I'm biking against a head wind and a side wind and sideways rain from all 50 cardinal directions, with only my little bike light, and lightning crashing all around. I never really saw the small mesquite -- I SO FUCKING HATE PEOPLE WHO LET THOSE THINGS GROW RIGHT ON THE BIKE PATH! -- that slashed across me, leaving me with a few scratches. Luckily it felt much worse than the damage turned out to be. My guess is that I will have fogotten about the scratches in the morning, and then will get in the shower and be suddenly very much remembering them once more.

I got home, though, with the go slow and take no chances method, and stripped inside the door and toweled off. I drank Chocolate Silk, and put a Doctor Who DVD on, and started to watch it. Talked to my sister on the phone ("Hey, you alive?" "Nope, I'm dead." "Okay, can I have your cat?") The storm abated, and...

The power went out.

Really, now, WTF? Where's the dramatic timing, I ask you, in that?

There's a curious phenomena here during power outages. Literally within seconds, there will be a group of people outside, talking loudly (or seeming to, in the sudden silence) about the power being out.

"The power is out."

"Yeah, it is."

"Hey man, is your power out too?" (DUDE, we live in the SAME FUCKING BUILDING!)

"Hey, those guys over there are out, too."

"Yeah, but that sign is lit over on Grant, power must not be out there."

"Power is still out."

At least this time it only lasted 10 minutes. The last time we had a power outage, they eventually ran out of variations on observing that the power was out, had to turn to actual conversation, and a fist fight almost broke out. Which, now that I think about it, was more entertaining.

Biking in the hot, humid mid-day sun to the 17th Street Market?

Problematic.