Story time

A long long time ago, in a galaxy far far away...

Nope...both of those are wrong.

Once upon a time...

No. That infers that it's going to be some kind of fairy tale. It's not really.

There once was a girl named Robyn...

Sounds like the beginning of a limerick...and if you think I'm telling this entire story in limerick form, you've got another thing coming...

Okay, nevermind the beginning. The point is, I actually have a somewhat interesting story to tell today. True story. Happened to a friend of a friend of mine.

Me (befriended to) *insert friend here* (befriended to) Me.

For example, Rae's my friend, and I'm her friend. Therefore, a friend of a friend of mine could in fact be myself.

Anyways.

So my brother's gone to some summer acting camp. Fun stuff, and I get the house to myself. Which is all well and dandy. But now I need to bug myself to walk the dogs, rather than him doing that for me. By the time I figure I should walk the dogs, there are super dark clouds just over Nose Hill. They really don't look friendly. But the sun is still out, so I figure that maybe they just look worse than they really are, and it'll all just pass over without doing anybody any harm.

I make all the necessary preparations, and we're off for a walk. Of course, just after I leave, the lightening and thunder starts. Oh well. I'm a fan of lighting and thunder. The clouds are still looking a tad ominous, but whatever.

I take my favorite path to take on Nose Hill, which is the path that winds through the bottom of the little valley that goes through the hill for a while. So I do that. About halfway down the valley I find one of those little stick forts that we used to find. Usually they're in tepee form, but this one looks like a little house, high enough for you to stand up in, and probably about four square feet of room in it. Not bad. It's neat. I go check it out, since I've never seen one built in this part of the valley before. Then I move on.

As I'm walking, it starts to rain. I like rain. Then it rains harder. Since the lighting and thunder started, Champ has stuck very close to me, walking right in front of me and slowing to look back at me every few seconds or so. I've had to encourage him to keep walking almost the entire time. And the raindrops are getting a little bigger, and even slightly solid (as I can see a few slush-drops land on Champ) so I just tell him to keep moving and we'll just hang out under the next bunch of trees for a while. Which doesn't come for quite a ways, but whatever.

The next bunch of trees happens to be the end of the valley, where I usually walk up and around the hill before going back down. Now, I'm not a paranoid person, but even so, I though...hm...lots of lightning...top of a hill...maybe not the best mix. It's still only raining, so I call Champ and give Dex a shout, and we turn to walk back home by the way we came.

A little ways back, the rain starts pelting. Like, really pelting. I put my sleeves (which are totally soaked, and about two inches longer than they usually are) over the back of my neck, because it's starting to sting when the rain hits it. And I start to see little bits of ice bouncing off the ground. I like being out in storms as much as anybody else, but being out, with an unprotected neck and head in the hail? Hm, not so much. So I hurry along the path back to that little wood fort I saw earlier.

Not that it's much shelter. It's not like it has a real roof, just a bunch of logs and sticks. But it does stop the hail from pelting speed, and reduces it to more of a gentle dropping speed. Which is for sure nicer. Dexy's still walking around and exploring, but Champ's super close to me by this point. At one point I feel him leaning against me as we're sitting through the hail storm, and he is sitting behind me, with his head pressed against the side of my leg, and he's quivering with every fiber of his being. Poor guy.

I put my hand (or rather, dripping wet sleeve) on his head, and chat to him, call him by his various nicknames and joke around and laugh, and eventually he calms down. By calms down, I mean he just stops quivering within every inch of his life. Which is a start.

After a while (hail never really lasts too long) it slows down, and it gets a little lighter. I wait until I'm positive it's no longer hailing, and only raining, before I suggest to the dogs that we head home. Champ's still nervous, even though there's no hail, lightning, or thunder, but that's okay. He sticks close to me the whole way home. Dexy couldn't care less.

I wasn't only soaked by the end of this walk. I was wet to the point where I could not be any wetter. I hit my maximum wetness by the time I got to the end of the valley, so you can only imagine what it was like when I actually got home. You could have pushed me into a pool and I would not have come out any wetter than before.

All in all, good time. Three of us when up the hill, three of us came back. All's well that ends well I suppose. And it was really fun. I wouldn't have minded having somebody to share the experience with, as long as they're like me, and have no problem with being out in storms and hail and rain and such.

I had some good conversations with Champ. Which is always healthy every once in a while.

~Calminaiel~

"She won't mind if you couldn't see her. Their goal is to make everybody look pretty much the same."