My Black Cloud Follows Me...

...to most places that I go, and it shows an undying loyalty to me that I truly do not want or need. Just yesterday it was a hot but beautiful day. I was at my sisters house visiting her, my brother-in-law, their son, and my mom. Brendan and Mimi came with me. After visiting for a few hours, Brendan, I, Daniel and Mimi went down to the beach to go fishing. As we pulled into the parking spot, I thought hmm, its going to rain, and Brendan said some drops were already coming down. When I had suggested it looked like rain earlier, Uncle David (my brother-in-law) said 'its not going to rain'. Well here we were at the beach parking lot and it was getting dark, and not because it was getting close to evening, it was still late afternoon. We walked from the car to the beach down a narrow path through light woods and grass, and I mentioned I hoped we didn't get any ticks. The area is known for deer ticks. Daniel assured me if we stayed on the path we would not pick up any ticks.

Okay so we got to the beach, and Brendan and I set up the two poles we had. Brendan gave a cast and the line snapped! I had only earlier told uncle David I had wanted but forgotten to change the line that came with the reel when I bought it last year because the line seemed brittle. Well it lived up to its reputation and we lost a good lure. Daniel's line was just in the water, and their was lightning across the channel from us. Large, ominous black clouds were moving our way too. I said I thought we ought to get out of there, and before we could get all our gear together it was raining down on us pretty good. We took off running the short distance to the car, but the storm was apparently moving faster than we could run and we were pretty wet by the time we got into the car. Of course it did not matter all that much now that Mimi had already been soaking wet from her dive into the drink down at the beach. Oh, had I forgotten to mention it was her first time near a large body of water, and she of course had to jump right in. She seemed flabbergasted but swam pretty good for a first timer.

We drove the short distance to the house, and by the time we were in the driveway, the rain was pelting the car, the wind was whooping insanely, and the trees were swaying violently and dangerously. It was one heck of a storm and we all stayed in the car for a few minutes, until Daniel - whom I think was scared - bolted out and ran inside the house. Brendan and I soon followed, and I probably got as wet in a few feet as we had gotten earlier while running back to the car it was then raining so hard. What a storm.

Brendan and I enjoyed the end of our stay inside, me with desert and coffee, him just coffee, and soon departed. On the way out we hit a detour. Apparently there was trouble on the road ahead. My guess was a tree had come down. On the detour, we passed an accident. The storm had made things sloppy for sure. While following the time consuming detour, I happened to glance at my right leg, and lo and behold what did I find but two very small ticks stuck on my limb and enjoying my life's blood. I scraped em off pronto. I'll have to check for the tell tale bull's eye of Lyme Disease.

Well there it was, that black cloud had followed me both literally and figuratively from a storm that drenched us, to a fishing line that snapped taking with it a favorite lure, to a lengthy detour, to ticks embedded in my leg. All in all though, it was a pretty good day and a nice visit; but that cloud just keeps following me around - go figure.

All the best,
Glenn B