The Rain

My husband and I were supposed to go out to Naperville last night to see Jen and the kids. Orignially we were going to babysit, but because my nephew isn't feeling good, Jen came home and we were just going to visit. They live a few suburbs away and it takes about 30 minutes to drive there on a good day and up to an hour in the height of traffic.
Yesterday while at work, it started to rain. Again. I began to ponder how two days before when it was raining it took me thirty minutes to make a ten minute drive and the roads were flooding. Then I thought about our drive and I allowed the teeniest bit of reservation to fall over me. I envisioned hours in the car... sitting in bumper to bumper traffic. With my husband, who does not take kindly to such things. And then me, not taking kindly to such things either. And I thought- we are going to get into a fight. For sure.
So I quickly e-mailed Jen and suggested we might have to call the whole thing off.
Fast forward to the last half hour of my school day.
I peered out the window of my basement classroom and saw the streaming rain. The ground was saturated with water. The drops were landing on puddles an inch deep. My reservation meter went sky high and spilled over into doubt and hovered near stupid.
I texted my husband and suggested we hold off and reschedule our visit. But with manly determination he wanted to go ahead with it. He said he'd pick us up some coffees and it will take an hour but it will be fine.
Reservations went away. I began to believe again and became enthusiastic. Determined! I was dying to see the kids and catch up with Jen.
After a quick change of clothes and a mail check, we made it out of our lot in record time. And then it was like time stood still. Because our car sure did.
We sat in bumper to bumper traffic going ZERO miles an hour with an ocassional mocking spurt of five for good measure. Within thirty minutes, we were not even close to getting out of our town. We were still within one mile of our house. I was halfway through my new US Weekly. I looked up and saw that we were still trying to get onto a main road. It was at this point when after a darling conversation between my husband and myself ( note: this is sarcasm, I SAID we don't take kindly to such things ) that this mission was aborting.
I would say we then turned the car around and went home. And one might say that based on our travel route- BUT it took us another twenty minutes to get to the corner and turn the car and then another 25 minutes to get 'er on home again. At which point we stopped at the Dominicks on the corner and picked up a six pack- throwing out our coffees on the way in.
We quickly settled into our normal kitchen posts. Popped open some beers and looked at the clock. With awe we calculated the last hour and a half of our lives. It was a relief to be out of the car. We suddenly had so much more to talk about. I would venture to say relaxation kicked in.
And now today I am in the same boat. I have a Weight Watchers meeting as well as some errands and ultimately a trip to the city to visit one of my best and favorite friends and her two little wee ones.
But my husband, being a Water Department employee, just got called out to work for some emergency flooding issues. He called on his way in to warn me that he was having trouble making it due to road closings. The normal route was not going to work and while on the phone he said he wasn't sure he was going to make it through this flooded road... Silence from his end of the line. "Okay, I made it, " he sighed.
Five years ago I would have tackled this with a warrior like attitude. Desire superceding caution every time. But I am getting old.