After dropping Sho off yesterday and then blogging, I fed the dogs and fish, did a bit of housework,etc. and before long it was time to get to the 3pm Women's AA meeting. I arrived a little late but did participate. The topic was acceptance on page 417 of the big book, "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS". Then I drove to Hancock's Fabric Store on South Lamar and bought a couple of things. I love that store. It's like a candy store full of delight except it's not fattening. Anyway I drove back to the clubhouse and attended the 5:30pm Alanon meeting. The topic was the 11th Step...kewl. I waited for someone to show up at the 7pm Spanish Alanon meeting but no one did except one of the women from the earlier meeting only because a heavy rain had started pouring down. I showed her the weather radar on my phone. The line of rain would pass and then might be a good time to leave. By 7:30pm still no one arrived for the meeting and I decided to go home. The rain had slowed down.
Wow. I drove into a hell-anxious storm. The choices I made as to side roads, bridges, and whatever I traveled seemed gorged and out of control. Tires plumed the water high up spewing like fountain feather fans off the roadway. All terrain vehicles disdainfully passed my slow moving car as they whisked speedily by and showered the windshield with water. The wipers worked as hard and fast as possible to clear my vision but to no avail. The sheets of rain kept whipping and ever so briefly I saw the middle stripe on the road or a curb or a dim outline of the street to give just enough glimpse of the edge to stay on the road. I felt frightened as I gripped the steering wheel, hyper vigilant to stay safe in this deluge. I kept thinking, "Surely it's almost done!" and still...I kept on driving. At one point I felt afraid to cross a bridge because the rain was so fierce I couldn't see the road, the rails, nothing. So I stopped. A taxi drove around me and proceeded to cross so I followed it. Further along the road I just couldn't take it anymore. I pulled into the driveway of a country church and watched as a vehicle once in a while passed. I looked at the weather radar on my phone and apparently I was smack dab in the middle of that line of storm. It was slow moving and I'd been driving right in its pathway. What are the chances of that happening? I waited a while until the sheets of rain turned into drops then I got back on the road. The visibility was still poor but a bit better than before. By this time lightening streaked and forked violently. The crashing thunder shortly followed and I knew I was still in the storm but I finally made it home. It was about 8:30pm. I can usually be home in 15 to 20 minutes depending on the traffic. Jeesh. I felt grateful to be alive.
I don't believe in accidents. I believe everything happens for a reason. An opportunity to learn something. Guess what I learned from this experience? Acceptance, prayer and meditation might be some good things to practice instead of driving right into the long line of a Texas-sized thunderstorm. Jeesh. It's one thing to know the information...it's quite another to put it into action.
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