When we had arrived at the Aquarium it had been hot and sunny (oh yeah, and humid). Occasionally we’d pass a window and couldn’t quite decide if they were strongly tinted or if it was just getting quite dark out there, but once we came out those doors it was no question that a storm was on its way. And in almost no time at all the sky went from grey and menacing to wet and attacking. A torrent, even more than the Charlottesville rain I danced in. Suddenly the plan of walking around downtown until dinner wasn’t such a good one, but we still had a couple of hours until meeting folks for dinner. Seemed silly to rush back to the car and drive around in this awful weather, so we first ducked into Barnes and Noble and picked out a couple of new things to listen to in the car. When we came out it was clear that the storm was just getting started, and soon we were both drenched. We decided to take shelter in the nearest bar, an ESPNzone where we could play video games. So I paid for a card and started to look around for the ideal entertainment (Alpine Racer, anyone?) when employees started ushering everybody downstairs, explaining that one of those loud video-game noises was actually the fire alarm going off. People resisted going back out in the increasingly diluvian weather but eventually everyone was outside huddled under the awnings. Two fire trucks arrived and we were told they would be closed until at least 7pm, so we raced through the last few blocks to the parking garage. By now we were 100% wet, even items inside my purse were damp when I reached in for my keys. We moved the bus to a level spot inside the garage and popped the top open. Ah, now there’s a comfortable way to pass a pleasant hour.
We made drinks, had a snack, changed clothes, and Robert even sewed a button on one of my shirts until finally the roof of the garage was quiet and the rain had ended. Right next to the parking garage is a canal. When we parked that afternoon it was brown and mostly still. When we were walking back to the garage, near the height of the storm, it had four- and five-foot waves going, and an enormous amount of debris being carried, cups and similar trash, even a pallet and a small tree.
For dinner we met IRC folk John, David, and Amy at a downtown restaurant called Shogun. I had a delicious plate of sushi and enjoying catching up in verbal conversation rather than typed. Robert’s meal turned out to involve a stone over a gas flame where one must cook one’s own meal, not really what I was expecting. After dinner we went to see Amy’s house and talked a while more. Unfortunately we were a little too trusting on the “I’m sure we’ll find a hotel” front. I had found one on the internet that was cheaper than a bunch of others in that direction, so I had the address and phone number written down and we figured we’d just show up. It was after midnight when we saw them from the highway and pulled off, but somehow a half-hour later even after calling them we still couldn’t find it! So we decided just to stay at the Sheraton there instead, and the experience was miserable. The first room they gave us was thick with cigarette smoke and completely unmade, towels on the floor, etc. The person at the desk that night said the room couldn’t have smoke in it because it was a non-smoking room (um, are you calling me a liar?) and even completely failed to apologize to me for the hassle of having to bring my bags down and then get another room. If it hadn’t been after 1am I definitely would have left. I read for a while with my shirt draped over the lamp to provide some dark on the other side of the room and finally got to sleep, only to have the room’s alarm clock beeping in my ear at 6am. The only slightly good thing about this place was that the tv remote had a captions button that actually worked. Not nearly enough to make up for all the rest.