Not The Storm of the Century, but...

... definitely one for the record books! I don't know how much rain/wind/hail my area got, but I do know that tree branches were coming down all over the northwest part of the state, then it moved northeast (I'm assuming it hit T & D, too?).

Yesterday was my SD's 8th grade graduation/promotion ceremony. The Princess had MAD SCIENCE after school, and since it was the last one of the school year, I told her she could go, but I'd pick her up 15 minutes early. Her instructor, "Professor Genius", made her some slime to take home before she left. Then, we picked up Ace from work before driving what was supposed to be 1 1/2 or so hours up toward the mountain to A's school.

As we got closer to where we were going, the winds got worse. At one point, my SIL called to tell us they got halfway there and the winds were so bad, a tree branch flew between their car & the one in front of them (turns out that their area got the worst of it), so they were turning around and going home. We kept going. Then the rains hit.

Ok, a little sidebar here. For those who don't know me very well, I should probably tell you a few things: (1) Unless I am super-familiar with an area, I hate to drive. (2) My husband usually drives when we're together because he gets a bit carsick if he's not (plus, the whole I-hate-driving thing). (3) Storms are awesome, unless stuck in the middle of one.

Back to my story: There weren't many people on the road, anyway, but when the rain is POURING down and the wind is WHIPPING BRANCHES OFF TREES, it's usually time to pull over. I was in the left lane, going about 10 miles/hour so decided to pull off; yes, on the left side (median). I couldn't see to safely change lanes & pull off to the right shoulder, so I did the next best thing. Now, tell me, given the choices to keep going when you can't see anything through all the rain & wind, try to change lanes so that you can "legally" pull to the right shoulder, or pull to the left median with your flashers on, which would YOU do?

After a couple minutes of Ace ranting about us being late, but him not wanting to drive either, I told him he had two choices (well, three, if we turned around to go home): either drive the car, or shut up and let me do it my way. He really didn't want to drive (I still don't know why), so we waited it out a little, then continued on our way.

We got there, with time to spare, as I figured we would. Streets were soaked, and there were branches & leaves everywhere, but we were fine. We found our seats, and proceeded to watch Squeeks, and the other kids, become high school students. AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!