Fireball

It's after 11:00 p.m. and I've just returned from a nice dinner out with my son, his co-graduates, and their families. I have to type fast to meet my midnight deadline! I can't count the number of times I've made the trip from my house to Winter Park since my son has been going to school here, but I know it's a lot. (I could probably figure it out, but I don't want to now.) Today's trip was incredibly brutal. I made it intact, but it took me four and a half hours when it usually takes two and a half. The holiday weekend tourist traffic, combined with severe storms, made for a long journey.

The Jacksonville "beltway" (which I put in quotes because it's hard to call it that after growing up near the DC beltway) was a parking lot; that should have given me an indication of what was in store. Traffic picked up a bit once I got on I-95 -- at least in some spots. But when I turned on to I-4, the rain started. And about five miles beyond that, the sky let loose with serious fury. The rain was pounding down so hard it was nearly impossible to see the road. As is the case most of the time in Florida, there are some people who want to drive way too fast for the road conditions. I was keeping up with traffic -- at twenty-five to thirty miles per hour -- but there were a few people who seemed to think going sixty or above was a good idea, whether they could see the road or not. That rain lasted a half hour, much longer than our usual summer storms. Driving in it was exhausting.

In the midst of all of that, I saw something I've never seen before: a lightning-fireball. I don't think the lightning struck anything although it could have; my focus was on the road. Still it was hard not to be distracted by a fierce (and close) bolt of lightning that exploded maybe thirty feet from my car. It would have probably been a cool thing to see if I hadn't been trying to drive. Anyway, it was something new and different. The rain waxed and waned the rest of the way to my son's apartment. I hydroplaned a few times. It was pretty scary, and I'm not easily scared. My arms are sore from the grip I had on the steering wheel. I've never been so glad to arrive anywhere! Tomorrow will be a wonderful day of celebrating. Sometimes, despite what the memes say, the destination is more important than the journey. Watching my son graduate tomorrow will be what I remember about this trip, not the hazardous driving conditions. But I might remember the lightning-fireball.