I really appreciate this rain that we've been getting over the past 48 hours, but of course, being me and with my luck and knack for not paying attention when I should be, the rain has posed a bit of a problem for me. Early Monday morning I had a mountain of laundry to do, and I was very proud of myself for finally getting all the loads done and hung on the lines outside. Then I collected Greg and my mom and we headed off for Harrisburg to run some errands and do a little shopping. Note that it was totally sunny at that time. So we were down there for hours...visited Harrisburg Christian School to drop off used uniform items for the upcoming uniform sale, picked up the big monstrous build-it-yourself dollhouse that is about 1/4 finished and which we donated to HCS last year so the students could use the kit to finish it, but they never did...and then we went swimsuit shopping which is never something to look forward to. Greg found his in 5 minutes. An hour later I was still looking and repeatedly stomping out of the fitting room with another rejected suit! (I did finally find one that was acceptable.)

So anyway, after all of that, we finally head home which is a half-hour away, and Steve texts me and says it's raining at home. I ask him how he knows this. He says he looked out his office window and noticed it was dark up our way, so he went online and checked the Clarks Ferry Bridge traffic cam, and the roads were wet. (How many people do you know who would know to do this?) So with Greg at the wheel we headed for home to try to rescue those clothes, but by then we could see how dark it was getting "up north" ourselves, and I figured we wouldn't make it in time, so I tried calling Ben to tell him to run out and get the clothes off the lines. Couldn't reach him. I knew he was downstairs playing xBox, and since Jim sleeps down there sometimes, the ringer is turned off on that phone extension so it doesn't disturb Jim's beauty sleep. I also couldn't reach Ben on his cell phone because it is malfunctioning, and the new one is on order. But then the light bulb went off, and I thought to call Mike, Ben's xBox buddy. Sure enough, he confirmed that they were playing a game online, so he was able to notify Ben for me. But when we finally got home through the driving rain (with an inexperienced driver at the wheel, no less), we saw that most of the clothes were still on the lines. Ben was only able to get a few items in before the rain hit full force.

That really was quite the rain storm. We had thunder and lightning too, and a barn near our home was struck and went up in flames. We saw this on our way home and it about made my hair stand on end.

So the next day was really humid and soupy and the clothes still didn't dry by evening, so you'd think I would have checked last night's weather expectations to see if more rain was expected. I did not do this. I am not always a fast learner. So all last night and so far this morning, the clothes have enjoyed a second soaking. :( And I guess later today I will enjoy bringing in dripping clothes to re-wash them. Lots of dripping clothes. I can hardly wait for that chore.

In the meantime, I am taking Ben to work and going to breakfast at the local coffee house with my mom before she heads for home today. Dripping clothes can wait. Cappuccino and muffins cannot. :)