23 August 2006

Crash Boom Crash

4:24 this a.m. brought a very loud thunder crash and rumble. I expected the little whimpers that soon followed, but not the second crash, which was William knocking over his dresser on his way to find me. The sisters that help put his clothes away and get him dressed had left enough drawers open to tip it off balance enough to let it go crashing over with a nudge. After dealing with all that commotion, and dealing with the kids who came out to see exactly what it all was, it took me about an hour to get back to sleep. I should've just gotten up to do something productive, but bed was too comfy.
There's a forescast of scattered t-storms for our fair trip tomorrow, but unless we get something really violent, it doesn't bother me a bit. There are plenty of buildings to stroll through, and the morning should provide plenty of partly-cloudy/overcast weather for rides and outdoor fun. Hopefully the storms will hold off for the girls' show, though. The stage is covered, but not the audience.
The best time I ever had at the state fair was in a raging downpour. We had swapped the 2 elder Things off with rellies while Hubs and I went to see Kansas kick Lynrd Skynrd all over the old grandstand stage. It had been misty and cloudy for the whole show, and I had 2-year-old Thing 3 crashed in my lap. We watched the nightly fireworks for awhile, then left to get the Things back. As we came out of the grandstand tunnel, the fireworks ended with a crashing finale, combined/confused with a huge crash of thunder, and the rain came down in an instantaneous sheet that stopped the throng of people dead in the tunnel and caused a comical backlog of humanity. We waited a minute, said the heck with it and made a dash for it. The rain was warm, the kids were giggling, and we splashed through the eight blocks of state fairgrounds to get to the bus to our park&ride. The rain came so fast that the intersections were flooded because the storm sewers were unable to keep up. Aside for those of you unfamiliar with the Minnesota state fairgrounds: unlike our more rural neighbors, the state fairgrounds site is in the middle of the metro, and has full curb and gutter utilities and paved streets. Had this happened elsewhere, we'd have been slogging thru mud and considerably less merry. As it was, I had one Thing tossed over my shoulder, covered with a rather useless blanket, singing "it's raining, it's pouring..." in my ear and making me laugh. Kyle pulled the other two in the wagon. We dripped along with the rest of the bus riders, and dashed back to our van, which was by now standing dead center in the middle of an empty university parking lot. As we ventured out into the streets, the water was up to the doors. In all the times we've been to the fair, I don't remember having so much fun as that night.
I am assuming we will not see such rain tomorrow, but I suppose I'll pack along some extra clothes, just to be safe.

1 comment:

eyes_only4him said...

hope u had a great time at the fair and i wish i coulda went with you..

yes we had some rumbles here too..woke me up out of a dead sleep:)