Rain rain come today

It was a little after noon on a Wednesday and I was getting ready to leave for the week. I double checked with the attorney covering my Thursday morning hearings and I had managed to clear my Friday calendar. It was a long weekend come early and I was looking forward to spending the time with my son on a Scouting camp out. It's worth it to have a job just to be able to relish in the joy of leaving the job behind.

All the way home I was figuring out the final plan for the trip. The complication for our activity is that months ago we purchased tickets to the Paul McCartney concert here in Salt Lake City. The show is Thursday night and the camping runs from Wednesday to Saturday. There was never a decision to be made; we would be coming home for the concert.

Adam lobbied to just stay home and go up Friday morning but his pleas never had a chance. We needed to go up with the group and get the connections forming. I never like to be the latecomer to the campsite because you miss the best tent sites and most of the inside jokes are made that first day and night. Besides, the best part of the camping is the nighttime stories. I was already missing one night, I wasn't about to miss a second.

Once I got home we were planning to get some footwear for the boating. It was the final item on the list. As a good teenager Adam hadn't taken a shower so I gave him a half hour to get ready. In that time a major hailstorm rolled in. The pounding on the roof sounded like a percussion concert in our living room and the river and lakes in the street made me wonder if we'd need to leave the house to go boating.

When the lull in the storm came we hopped in the van, but we only got 2 blocks away before the hail and rain resumed in earnest. We thought the windows were about to break. We made it home and into the garage and waited out the hail. This time when it stopped I looked at my three other kids and asked who wanted to race Popsicle sticks down the gutter. Everyone came.

I grabbed my raincoat, gave a pancho to Adam, Naomi and Mary took umbrellas and Jonah just braved the rain. As we ran along the sidewalk tracking the floating craft we laughed and splashed and danced. I had to change my day one attire but I've seldom, if ever, had a better start to a camping trip. And Adam ended up taking two showers.

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