How was your 4th of July weekend? Mine was rather rotten. Or at least, it was really, really wet.

The plan on the 4th was to go to the Koka Booth Amphitheatre in Cary for their fireworks celebration, just like we did last year. We had a fabulous time last year, and the lineup was supposed to be just as great this time around: the Cary Town Band was playing early in the evening, followed by the Cary Symphony at dusk, followed by fireworks. So around 5:00 pm on Friday, we all piled into two cars with our coolers full of yummy picnicy stuff to eat and bags of fun things to do (e.g. knitting (for me), coloring books (for Laura and Maggie), and playing cards (for everyone)), and headed out to Cary. We waited patiently in line in order to park (it was crazy packed), and then made the mile-or-so hike from the parking lot down to the actual Amphitheatre. We made camp almost exactly where we did last year and proceeded to eat our dinners, play cards, listen to the music, and have a generally good time.

Then the thunder and lightening came. But we counted. Nearly 10 seconds passed between lightening bolt and thunder clap, so while everyone else around us was scampering to pack up and clear out, we decided to hold fast. The storm was miles away, and it was entirely possible that it wouldn’t come anywhere near us. About 2 minutes later, the storm was dead upon us. Crash-boom – no seconds between lightening bolt and thunder clap anymore. So we joined ranks and started packing everything up as quickly as we could. A few drops fell before we made it to the covered pavilion, joined by several hundred other people. We were packed in like sardines, but at least we weren’t out in the downpour. It was coming down in sheets, but we had high hopes that it would be your typical summer storm – heavy and fierce, but short-lived.

No such luck. It lasted for hours. After about 20 minutes of standing around, shoulder-to-shoulder in the pavilion, people started singing. The national anthem, “America the Beautiful,” etc. And when I say “people,” I mean nearly everyone in the pavilion - hundreds of people. It was kinda fun. No one seemed bummed out that we were all packed in so tightly or that the fireworks were cancelled. We weren’t just making the best of a bad situation – we were having fun.

And then they kicked us out.

Yes, they kicked us out. Shortly after the fireworks would have started had it not been pouring cats and dogs, the venue staff kicked us out. They said because the show was cancelled, they were going to start cleaning, so we all had to leave. So we had to walk the mile back to the car in the pouring rain and electrical storm. Luckily, both Laura and I had waterproof purses, so we were able to keep our cameras, phones, etc. from an untimely demise, but a great many other things were ruined (like the coloring books).

The drive home was miserable. We were all soaked through to the bone (my poor new car *sniff*), and the roads were packed and unmanaged, as the police force was not expecting to have to direct traffic at that time. The roads were beginning to flood from the sudden onslaught of rain, and I drove most of the way home around 20-30 mph (this on highways and freeways).

It rained again Saturday night. And Sunday night. (It is, of course, clear tonight… but that’s a given, as it’s a weekday, right?) Sunday we initially had plans to go to Eno River State Park and go swimming in the old rock quarry. I’ve never been, but Hans and Laura have been a couple of times and say it’s great fun. It’s deep - 65 ft. or thereabouts. But of course, because of all the storms, we had to cancel our plans. We did end up going to see WALL-E, as planned, and it was terribly cute. And of course, when we walked out of the theater after the movie, it was once again pouring down as if God were planning on flooding the Earth once again. (And I’m beginning to wonder, with all this recent torrential rain, if he’s not…) We were, of course, once again drenched on our way to the car.

Today, I bought an umbrella.