June 16th:
After our trip to LI, I used Wednesday to rest, catch up on sleep, and get
things back into order.
Thursday, had been predicted to be a stormy day, and oh boy was it ever. I
left the house at 8:20am, with my FIL at the wheel. I was to catch an 8:43
train to Center City Philadelphia. I was going into Temple to watch another one
of the dreaded movies I was required to watch in a Latin class I took during
the spring semester. I was able to find a wonderful describer, and we usually
meet at 10am. As it takes us about 4 hours to get through a 2 hour movie. The
student I am working with describes all of the visual information, all of the
subtitles, and helps me work on the required worksheets. You must be talented
to do all three tasks, and that she is. These are not the run of the mill movies;
they are typically, of Latin origin, in Spanish, with a very detailed theme.
For example the movie we were watching on this day was about Gang violence in
Brazil. Not typically a topic I would choose for myself, but it’s required. The
only thing I will say about this particular movie is that it was violent,
depressing, and had lots of cussing. I am lucky I did not have nightmares about
it. Anyways back to my trip into the city. I boarded the train, no rain had
started. I thought maybe just maybe I would be able to get down to the city to
my building, without getting wet. Well as we are getting closer and closer to
center city, it started to rain harder and harder.
Note, here I can't hear that well, but when the rain is so hard, I can hear
it, and it’s hard and loud.
So by the time I got off the train at my stop it was pouring cats and dogs.
I was able to get down to the street level without getting too wet. But that is
when it let loose completely. It rained hard. Like inches in minute’s hard
rain. There was quite a few other people waiting under the tracks, waiting for
the rain to let up. So I waited, and waited, and waited. My describer was
running late herself, so I wasn't worried about the time. After about 20
minutes it let up enough. Through all of this, it was lightening and
thundering, very loudly. Loud enough that I wanted to go and crawl under a
blanket. I did think, I should have never ventured out and should have stayed
in bed. Oh well! Puppy wasn't too happy about the lightning and thunder, she
shook every time it thundered, but never whined.
So when I did come out from under the tracks, the protected area of the
train station, it was still raining. Raining from sideways. But I figured that
I better make it a run for it when I could. I wasn't alone. On my walk there
was a girl there with her mother who were looking at the campus for the fall. Not
a good day for that sort of tour. When I got off the block that the train
station occupies, this is where I wish I could have seen. I started to cross
the street, and there was water. Not inches of water, not a few inches of
water, but water up to my shins. My shoes were submerged under water, and so
were my pants. This was the type of rain, that no coat, no hat could keep you
dry. I didn't use my umbrella, as the winds was too strong. There were other
people trying to help me get through this water. There was about 1 1/2 blocks
of this. Pup had no clue what to do. She had on her poky pants, I guess when
there is water up to her belly, and maybe she thought she would have to
swim. And now to think about it later, I
probably should not have walked through it, as it could have swept me away. But
I was in a hurry, wet, and on a mission.
I did get to the university campus finally. Then Miss Pup thought that she
should go potty right there in the middle of the rain, in the middle of the
sidewalk. I wasn't happy. And I probably said a few choice words, words I am
not proud of. Some people around would say I corrected pup too hard, and yes
maybe this is the case, but she was in harness. I had given her plenty of time
at home to go, she gave me no warning, no heads up, nothing. I was wet, it was
raining, and I was embarrassed. Not excuses, just what was going on. The other
part that frustrated me is that my university does not believe in trash cans. I
walked about 2 blocks before I found one. So after I corrected pup, I finally
did make it to my destination.
My describer did not have much better luck in getting to campus that
morning too. By the time I went home, my shoes were still squishy, still wet.
When I came out of the building we had been watching the movie in, the library,
it was sunny and humid. Oy Vey!
More musings to come...
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