Josh and I had a date with Erin and Ian Philpot last night at 8 pm at an outdoor DQ in West Dundee.  It was exhilarating watching the storm roll in with it’s fantastic lighting dance.  We had the dogs with us that that made for a tousle when a couple dogs passed by.  Haley’s initial response was a robust guard dog barking and when we persuaded her into silence she was all eyes alert and fully body quiver.  Sam’s continuous response was his painfully shrill defense barking intermixed with his chimp sounding talking noises.  Meanwhile I’m trying to tackle the largest medium chocolate dipped chocolate ice cream cone.  The shell not only didn’t harden completely but it was oozing chocolate ice cream all down my hand – apparently it was not only too warm out for the ice cream to harden the shell but it was so hot that the shell actually melted a mighty outer layer of ice cream.  So while that is oozing out the cracks in the shell it is also melting at the top where I started to nibble away.  Every time I got a hunk of shell the freed melted outer layer splooshed onto my hands.  I was a mess but it sure was delicious.

An hour and a few minutes later the storm cracked it’s first thunder and sent Haley into a whole new and different wave of full body convulsions.  She made it onto my lap and I comforted her with a vice grip until we all realized that crack was only the beginning and it was probably time to move.  We stood up and, literally, as soon as we did the wind became a violent torrent of dust and intermittent raindrops.  We rushed to the car and I scooped Haley up along the way because she was clearly looking for any means of escape.  Again, literally, as soon as we all threw ourselves into the car the downpour crashed upon us.

The worst of it was the drive home.  I played the role of terrified passenger and spent most of the ride envisioning the ways we very well might get into an accident and severely injure ourselves.  We slid through puddles and around unknowing drivers.  As we neared home my less freaked out fear was that in the last stretch of probably my most terrifying car ride we would crash the only car we had.  (Side note:  our truck was recently diagnosed “totaled” so we are once again a one car family.)  Then I prayed with all my might that God wouldn’t take away our last mode of transportation when home was in sight.

The story ends safely at home with me yanking the rain petrified dogs out of the car, through the pelting rain, and through the front door for a couple episodes of Big Bang Theory with the hubby before bed.