Look Out For Tuesday The 17th

Some people were worried about Friday the 13th. I wasn’t one of them.

I may be a lot of things, but I don’t think I’m superstitious. Black cats, broken mirrors, bring ‘em on. Friday should have been just another day, maybe a little better than some since it was a pay day. Other than that, it should have been no big deal.

My Friday the 13th started off with me getting almost all the way to work before realizing that I have neither one of my cell phones on me. I’m not as worried about my personal cell phone, but while at work, my work cell is utilized a lot. Let’s just say I’m happy I’m not paying that bill every month.

So that was my big faux pas. Was it Friday the 13th bad luck or was it just me not awake in the morning when I’m leaving for work. I think it was just me not awake yet.

Since I pretty much breezed through Friday, with only the phone incident, I should be set for the week, right? I wish. My horrible bad day came on Tuesday the 17th. It was a very bad day. I’m marking that day on the calendar from now on.

It started with a lot of rain. I was awakened many times during the night to the sound of the storm coming through. In the morning, it was still raining hard.

I have a long drive to work. I am literally in the middle of nowhere and to get here, I take a two lane Podunk road in the middle of nowhere to get to the middle of nowhere. This is a two lane blacktop road that hasn’t seen fresh paint on the lines at least since I was a little kid. At the side of the road is either a ditch or a bunch of trees. Absolutely no where to pull over if my life depended on it, and believe me, my life depended on it.

So, it’s raining cats and dogs, it’s dark and I can’t see where the road stops and the ditch begins. To top that off, there is so much water on the road, I’m hydroplaning on top of the water more than my tires are touching blacktop. And to make matters even worse, every time a semi truck drives in the opposite direction of me (I seem to be the only one heading south, the only other cars I encounter are northbound) it splashes so much water up on to my windshield that I am literally blinded for a few seconds while the wipers make a couple of swipes. It was absolutely terrifying.

It was just such a helpless feeling. I can’t see, I’m afraid to try to turn around as I’m not sure I can find a place to turn around, nor do I really know where I am in relationship to home. I know if I keep following this road, I end up where I need to be. But, I would have little to no hope of finding an alternate route home.

Then I had enough. I called my boss to complain about the road conditions and to state that we are both nuts. Him for making me drive this drive and me for driving it! It was one of those rare occasions that he actually agreed with me. He was faring no better on the road he was on than I was. So he decided that we should give up on our plan to head to the audit site and instead just head for our office. Good in theory. My problem was that I had little to no clue how to change my game plan of going from point “A” to now point “C”.

So, I called Ron. I was nice enough to wake him up and everything! I gave a crying version of my dilemma and asked him to look on a map on the internet and help me get to the office from where I am at. Of course, Ron asked me where I was. Me replying “I don’t know” was not helping him help me in the least! Finally, I found a cross road with a route number. As soon as I mentioned the route number, Ron knew sort of where I was. I was told to head left on that road, and I would come out somewhere that I would know. Good thing I believed him because sure enough, I came across a road that I did know and was able to take it right back to the office.

So there I was, stuck in the middle of nowhere in the rain, not wanting to drive any more.

If I ever win the lottery, the first thing I’m buying is a chauffer. Trust me, I would give up my driver’s license in a heartbeat if I could. And, pooh on Friday the 13th. Beware of Tuesday the 17th!