It was a five-guy day field trip for me Thursday because I had charge of the little ones and looked to the big ones for help. We went to the Y first where the big ones joined revolving teams of players scooting up and down the court, their sneakers barking like seals and I thought I couldn’t feel any hotter – until an hour later when we went to a pool in whose Ladies Room I bent to within an inch of the slimy floor to pull some very small shorts off a very small person and thought I was going to pass out and die.
I was as miserable as the kids were happy with the heat. Then, as we sat at the table ordering food I suddenly knew rain was coming. It was as if the news had telegraphed itself to my every pore. Or maybe my ears sensed a sudden dip in the barometric pressure.
“Did you feel THAT?” I said to my five companions. “It’s going to rain – hard! We’d better get home before it does.”
“Rain?!” said Mr. Italian Ice here, pointing to the enamel-blue sky. “The weather guys were wrong if they said rain for THIS day!”
But it did rain, 90 minutes later and trees went down all over the county.
It’s not that I smelled it. It’s not that I saw it either unless it was that moment when the wind did a quick ten-second somersault and the leaves all went pale and threw their dresses over their heads. Mostly I just ….. sensed it. Games of basketball and Marco Polo may be behind me but I’m good at other things. Unlike these guys below, me and the cows, we feel that rain a-comin’ and we just want to go lie down.
EXIT ONLY 