When last we met, James had called me about the rainstorm just hitting his building. My team leader was in my cubicle at that point to talk to me about an order she was helping me with, and told me she had water in her basement and a sinkhole in her yard. The next wave of the storm took a bit to reach us, then came down in waves. By then even Gary in the next office was saying that maybe I ought to go home.

But I wanted to finish a simple modification I had been assigned. I worked through that, and by the time I finished it was about 3:15. About that time my branch chief appeared, saying if I wanted to go home to go.

I kept looking at the traffic map; it had been getting better, and now it was starting to get worse.

Fifteen minutes later our director solved the dilemma and told everyone to leave.

It was a hard rain when I finally got outside, but not yet monsoon-like. I'd checked the traffic maps and the freeway was orange and red in both directions, so I decided to go my overland route, through Dresden Drive to Windsor to Chastain Park and out Mount Paran Road, although I was worried about the last, as it twists under so many trees.

I made it as far as the light on Buford Highway. It's a long light and I watched, peering through the downpour and the windshield wipers, as a car on the opposite side of Dresden just sat. And sat. And a car that came up behind him continued the sitting.

This was not a good thing. I made a flash decision and turned left down Buford Highway instead. If I still wanted to go down Dresden, I could connect with it again at Clairmont.

It was raining harder, and even with the wipers at top speed it was hard to make out the puddles. I went past Clairmont on a snap decision to go through Buckhead instead. There were big puddles on Buford. Some I managed to skirt, some I couldn't see, a couple of times I couldn't get over. At one point I felt myself starting to panic and my heart to pound, especially when I hit one small lake and my battery light flashed for a few seconds. I guess I got the leads wet. But Twilight plodded on.

There was one last lake before the entrance to GA400 on Sidney Marcus Boulevard, and then the traffic, and the rain, slackened as I turned on Piedmont, then on East Paces Ferry. From there it was like driving home pre-February 1999 again, down to the crawl before the two lights on West Paces Ferry Road.

The freeway was moving okay at this segment so I got back on when I reached Northside Drive so I didn't have to come behind the sinkhole that is Cumberland Mall, and got off at Spring Road.

I reached home 70 minutes after leaving work. Like Farmer Hoggett, I gave the car a fond pat. "That'll do, Twi. That'll do."

More about the continuing deluge.

Labels: weather

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 6:41:00 PM

Comments:

Glad you and Twi got home safely. I'll stop whining about snow on the last day of summer.

# posted by  FiveAcres : 9:53:00 PM

 

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