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When you invite friends over you always hope they have a good time. We are at our retreat in the mountains for a week — on our last day of a one week vacation. (Yes, I retired from IBM last December after 35 years, but I have been so busy that there hasn’t been time for a vacation). The weather has been spectacular all week — until today. Our friends, Sidney and Lenore, arrived at noon after a 150 mile drive. We were going to have lunch on the boat but it was a bit cloudy so we decided to eat on the porch. XM Radio was playing in the background, but much to my dismay, the construction site two doors away had the chain saw and chipper running at a high decibel level. We endured this and as it appeared to be clearing headed for the boat with our dessert in hand. After a nice spin down the lake to a favorite cove, we dropped the anchor and enjoyed a brownie and beverage. The classical music continued thanks to a wireless CD player that broadcast an FM signal to the radio.
The first few drops were peaceful. The light rain was even enjoyable — little drops falling on the lake. Even a more sustaining rain wasn’t too hard to take — we were having such a nice discourse with our friends. As the intensity increased I decided to pull the anchor and idle our way back to the dock. The rain turned to a downpour and then the thunder and lightning began. Brilliant flashes of light followed by thunderous booms. The choice was to go faster and get wetter or to risk that continuing a very slow pace might get us into some serious weather. I tried to compromise but the bottom line was we all got soaked. Back at the cottage we all got some fresh clothes while things spun in the dryer.
The whole day could have been a disaster but when you are with friends, seems like any time together is a good time. When you have interesting things to talk about and share, who cares if you get soaked in the process? As Sid and Lenore were driving home, I hope they were agreeing with this.