Saturday, September 6, 2008

the road

Not the book by Cormac McCarthy. But you should read that.

No, I mean the streets of Wilmington and all the craziness they usually cause/result in/otherwise take part in in some way or another. So yesterday, lame lame tropical storm Hanna came through and didn't actually do much of anything, but people were freaking out. Which I don't understand, because this is the coast, and apart from the college students, people here (should) have been through hurricanes before so they (should) know that a tropical storm or a category one hurricane is basically just an excuse to have a party, maybe park your car somewhere else if you live in one of the (many) areas in Wilmington where it floods every time rains. But people hear the words tropical depression and forming off the coast of Africa and suddenly there are two loaves of bread and one gallon of milk left in the whole store. But what I'm getting at is that it ALSO affects people's ability to drive (normally), mine included (I'm loving these parentheses today and I don't know why, it's sort of annoying me as I write).

First, when I went to work yesterday morning, I left about an hour later to go out and grab some breakfast. And on the way to food, I pulled up behind this woman in a Mazda X-something another--anyway, it was a little red convertible with the top down. Mind you, it's misting outside, or whatever you call that thing it does when it's not quite sprinkling, but there's definitely a mist of water falling. And she had in her left hand an American flag. She was holding that thing straight up in the air, and I was behind her for at least a mile and a half, maybe two miles. And to top that, we sat at a light for five minutes. I KNOW her arm was getting tired, she didn't let her arm down or switch arms or rest in any way. And I don't why the heck she was doing it, that's why it was so weird. I mean, maybe she was evacuating and wanted people to follow her? Maybe she couldn't hook it in her window with the top down and, well, couldn't bear to not fly it? Or maybe she just really, really, really loves the states.

And then, then. There is this huge smudge on the inside of my windshield that's only visible at night, particularly in the glare. Well, after prancing around in the wind and rain and lake-puddles last night, we decided to go out and find some energy drinks for all night staying-uppage (I know, I know. You don't have to say it). Once we got the drinks, we were right by campus and one of our friends needed to get something from her apartment so we headed in that direction. At that point, it had started to rain fairly heavily--at least hard enough that, already basically having to stick my head out the window like the Joker just to see anything, I had no idea which way car was even pointing. It was bad. I'm so glad there weren't many cars out there or I'm certain I would have gotten into an accident. BECAUSE, right as we were about to make the left into her apartment area, well--I couldn't really see the left, and it looked like the two lane kind of road that's divided by a grass median, so I tried to go on the other side of the grass. Except it was a regular undivided road, so I turned into where there was a sidewalk and a sign and lots of grass instead of pavement. With someone behind me and another person approaching the intersection, but of them assuredly thinking I was drunk. So while I promise I drive well (if a bit aggressively), I've pretty much proved to everyone that I can't. It was great though, I completely missed the road.

And that was pretty much the most exciting things Hanna brought. It was a little disappointing, to be honest. But I grew up on the coast for all the hurricanes in the '90s, so I admit I'm a little biased, wanting another Fran to hit and all. I woke up for the worst of it around three this morning, and the trees were tossing around a good amount, the security light going on and off. Not much lightning, which is weird, because it wasn't forecast and I remember very distinctly there being almost constant lightning in all the bigger hurricanes I went through as a kid. Maybe we'll get a big one this year? Or next?

But now. Back to the homework I'm not doing. cheers.

No comments: