Walking in the Rain with the Ones I Love

Almost a full year ago I wrote this entry about a walk I had with Angel and Jacqueline that was briefly interrupted by a rain shower. We ended up taking refuge from the rain under the branches of a small tree. (By the way, it's actually one of my favorite posts, and I do hope you read it.)

Well, last Monday it happened again.

We had a violent little storm tear through our town on Monday, and for while it looked like Angel and Jacqueline wouldn't get to go on their walk. The rain fell hard, and the wind blew strong knocking every loose pine needle, pinecone, leaf and branch from the trees. It really made a mess of things outside.

As luck would have it the clouds cleared a bit and let the sun shine through later that afternoon. I decided I might as well take advantage of the break and at least take Jackie and Angel out so they could do what they needed to do. Once outside, the sky looked even better than I had anticipated, and so we ventured off on the old "long walk" path that runs along a stream, (we call it a barranca,) near our house. This is the walk we used to take before the new park opened, but since the park opened we haven’t gone the old way much. I thought it would be interesting to take the old route because I wanted to see how swollen the stream had become.

The old walk runs about a mile or so around a section of the barranca, and the tree I wrote about last year is at approximately the half way mark. As we approached the tree this time I thought about the events of last year because it was basically the same scenario; it had been raining earlier, the rain had stopped and looked like it would remained stopped, then all of a sudden, it got dark.

This time as we drew closer to the tree, however, it got really dark, and just as we passed it, all hell broke loose. The wind kicked up and howled through the trees, and a light sprinkling turned into a torrent in less than fifteen seconds. I quickly scooped up Jacqueline, and tugged on Angel's leash coaxing him to follow me a little faster. We made a dash for a grouping of Eucalyptus trees that offered minimal shelter from the rain, but it was at least something.

I put Jackie down and tried to clean off my glasses so that I could assess our situation. It didn't take long for me to see it was pretty bleak. It was very dark, and the rain was coming down hard, propelled by 30 mile an hour winds.

We eventually made it to the safety of our warm, dry home, but not before we ran from one inadequate shelter to the next in our quest to get home. While it was a grand adventure for us, Angel and I ended up fairly well watered down. I think that bothered me more than it did Angel, though. Jacqueline made the trip with in her papa’s arms, and therefore remained relatively dry and warm.

Once home, Angel and Jacqueline filled their bellies with premium dog food before they took a well-deserved nap. I changed into some dry clothes, and played HALO by candlelight.

Unfortunately I failed to bring along the camera and document our harrowing day in the rain, but I do have some photos taken along the path where it occurred. I present those now for your ocular entertainment…

The tree just right of center in this picture is the one we stood under the first time. This is just after that tree, and near the spot where we took cover from the nasty storm we encountered this last Monday. Angel scoping out the surroundings watching for those pesky squirrels we run into every now and again. Have I ever mentioned that Jacqueline LOVES a good dandelion? Imagine this shot with a lot of water on the ground, and with drops hitting puddles of that water. Then imagine Jacqueline warm and semi-dry in my arms. The resulting image should give you some idea the urgency with which Angel was finding his way home. (Albeit more motivated by his tummy than anything else.)

Tune in next week for the continuing adventures of Angel and Jacqueline, and be sure to check out the Carnival of the Dogs at Mickey's Musings, and the Friday Ark at The Modulator for more interesting animals.

Posted by Jeff at January 6, 2006 7:58 AM