July 24th, 2019

I have mentioned before that almost every week day, Tim takes a break somewhere in the vicinity of noon and if I am home, together, we take a walk. Weather permitting of course.  During the rainy season, weather is far less permitting than other times of the year so sometimes we wait and walk in the evening, or mid-afternoon or if it's just a bugger of a day, we skip it entirely.  

We miss the walk when we don't take it though.  Partly for the exercise, partly for the break part way through the day.  I think it's particularly important for Tim to be able to get up from his desk and the computers and the phones and just take that nice little walk.

I've noticed that we tend to have really great conversations during, what I have termed, the noonwalk.  Both of us are still energetic and fired up by either something we heard or something we read and there is no lack of things to talk about.  By the end of the day we are both tired and kind of brain-dead.  While I am still functional enough to prepare dinner, serve it and clean up afterwards, that is pretty much the extent of my capacity at the end of most days.  Tim has usually reached the point where point and click with the remote is all he really wants to do by days end.  I totally get it.

Generally, we noonwalk the same route.  It's roughly a 3 mile circle that takes us past the beach, of course, and depending on how many photos I stopped to take, or number of times I stopped to re-tie my shoes, or how many people stopped us to ask for  directions, it's about a 40 minutes intermission in our otherwise busy days, Monday through Friday.

Most of the year, meaning, October through June, it's an absolutely delightful walk.  The air is either absolutely perfectly comfortable or along about January or February, a wee bit chilly, and being outside is exactly where anyone would want to be.  July through September however, not so much.  It's hot, it's humid and by the time we get back we are sweaty and smelly and thirsty.  Oh we do it anyway because we are crazy people.  I'm just saying that walking conditions are not ideal during the worst of the summer.

But we've adapted to the heat and humidity.  I mean it is still hot and we still are sweaty by the time we return, but we don't really notice it so much anymore.  Or maybe we just don't think about it.  It's like 2+2=4.  July and walking outside equals sweaty - so what? Big deal,  y'know?

The bigger issue, yes bigger than the heat and humidity, is that this is the rainy season.  We anticipate that there will be at least a little bit of rain for at least a few minutes every day.  So I always check the forecast first.  And not just the overview either, I look at the local, hourly forecast AND the radar.  I always look at the radar pictures.  Is there is storm on the horizon?  Which way is it coming?  And then afterwards, we adjust our walk accordingly.

99 times out of 100, no even more than that, 999 out of 1000, this works.  The checking of the forecast, checking the radar, checking the actual sky 360 degrees is an accurate picture of what the weather is going to do over the next 45 minutes of our noonwalk.  And then there is that one time, that one in a thousand time, when it doesn't.

That was yesterday.

I did, as I always do, check all the things I always check, including the sky.  Rain was expected, but not until mid-afternoon.  We are in the clear, all systems go, ready for lift-off.  And so we set out.  We walked, we talked, and everything was both fine and dandy until we got to the absolute furthest point from our home.  Naturally.  Isn't that how it always works?

There was no warning, no thunder, no lightening, nothing helpful at all.  There weren't even all that many clouds and the few clouds that were hovering above us were just kind of a light grey, not the deep dark scary clouds that anyone might possibly associate with a storm.  So it was quite the surprise when the sky opened up and peed all over us.

Dang.  Tim, because he thinks fast on his feet, immediately took off his hat and plopped it on my  head. Our first concern is always the hearing aids.  We don't want to ruin them!   We headed home at a quicker pace.  It was going to be at least 15 minutes, maybe 20 no matter what, so we tried to walk under the protection of trees as much as possible.

The rain was as fierce as only Florida Rainy Season sneaky butt rain can be and we were both soaked through in a very short time.  When my hair started feeling wet, I took out my hearing aids and held them cupped in my hand, in my pocket for protection.  Now I was still wet but at least the electronics were safe.

Who did that song, "If you like Pina Coladas and getting caught in the rain?"  Rupert Holmes?  Is that right?   That song kept running through my head.  I actually don't mind walking in the rain as long as the "ears' are safe and dry.  The rain was cool and refreshing on such a hothothot day. But by the time we arrived back at the house we were literally soaked to the skin. And our clothes had gone from being a cooling wet to a clammy wet. Ewwwww. We peeled off the drenched clothes, dried off and changed. (Our shoes are still sitting in the utility room trying to dry today as a matter of fact).  My hair looked...well it looked like I had been walking in the rain.  It's not a good look for me.

But the important part is that the hearing aids were fine.  I immediately removed the batteries and left the devices open so that could completely dry.  Which meant that for the rest of the day I was reading lips but, hey, what you gonna do?  Today they are absolutely fine with new dry batteries and once again, I can hear!  Yay!

So I suppose lesson learned, no matter what the weather report says, regardless of what the radar says, during the rainy season, I need to tuck a small zippy bag in my pocket just before we leave the house for the noonwalk.  Got it.

I can be taught.