Rain, rain and more rain

Yesterday was a long, long day.

It also involved a lot of rain.

I personally am enamored by rain, especially warm rain. To me, there is nothing like going outside during a summer rainstorm and getting absolutely soaked. Whether I'm playing hoops, playing baseball, biking, swimming or doing something else, soaking up a summer monsoon is refreshing.

But yesterday was not the right day for rain. I was covering the Division 3 state track meet in Comstock Park (just north of Grand Rapids, MI). I had an early deadline to write two fairly lengthy articles.

Because of an afternoon rainstorm, however, I had to leave the meet early -- with my stories in progress -- to get back to the office in Jackson.

And that is when I got caught smack dab in the eye of the storm. I felt as though the storm was attached to me like a magnet. It didn't matter what highway I was on. I drove through a monsoon -- AND a traffic jam -- on I-96 for two hours. Then, as I took a southward turn onto less-crowded 127 South, the rain followed suit.

It didn't leave me until I was 10 minutes from the office.

By then, though, I had been on the road for close to two and a half hours (usually the drive takes approximately an hour and a half), lagging along at a pace of about 40-50 mph.

As I pulled into the office, prepared to make a harried attempt at calling coaches and patching my stories together at the final moment, I cursed the rain for my predicament.

It was that kind of day. A rare rain-cursing day at that.