Rain

Well, yesterday basically was everything I expected from it. It started off with rain, rain and even more rain. It was just bucketing down when I left home. And as soon as I arrived at work, I realised the shoes I wore were wrong, letting in more water than the Titanic! My feet were soaking...

So, with cold and wet feet I had to start work. First of all, I needed to know whether the football match was still on, if not, I could go home. But apparently the weather at the match site was better, so the match was on. After buying beer I drove to the team I had to pick up, while it was still raining (this is a recurring theme in this post). It dried up a bit while I was waiting for the team to come to the coach, but as soon as I started driving again, the rain started up as well.

I got on the motorway and about ten kilometers later, my windshield wipers started doing weird things. In stead of the down being its resting place, it decided the up would be the resting place. And then after about three more kilometers of this (at least they were still working), they did want to come down, but they didn't at the same time and then they just stopped! While it was pouring!!! The way they had stopped though was in the middle of my windscreen so I didn't see much. I stopped the coach, pushed the wipers in the down position and carried on driving. A bit slower, but those guys needed to play a match.

Fortunately the closer we got to the match site, the drier it became and when we arrived, the sun did so as well. Everyone got off the coach and I tried the wipers again. Well, I could hear the wiper motor (or engine), but the wipers had decided to go on strike. I called the emergency mechanics and about an hour and a half later they showed up. Half an hour later they left again: nothing they could do, they knew where the problem was, but without taking the coach apart, they couldn't reach it (don't you just love modern technology?). The weather had cleared up, so I decided I would risk driving home without windscreen wipers.

After waiting for about three hours, the team was due back. I started the coach, which only caused a lot of lights on my dashboard to start flickering and doing weird stuff, but the coach wouldn't start. I was about to throw in the towel, when I realised the coach was in gear (thank you mechanic) and wouldn't start as a result of that. I put it in neutral and the coach started first time (phew...). But all that flickering of lights and other weird stuff had caused the fuse to the radio and everything related to that medium to blow, so apart from the windscreen wipers not working, now the radio had given up the ghost as well.

I left with the team on board and instead of going straight home, they wanted to have dinner on the way. A small restaurant in a small village was our destination. After good food (including a great desert) we left again. By now it was dark, but more importantly, it was absolutely pouring down. And driving without windscreen wipers during the day is one thing, but at night... Horrendous! I had to drive slowly to be able to see anything. Fortunately it didn't last long, but I hope never to have to do that again. As soon as the rain dried up, I was able to gain some speed and drive the team back home. And then I still had to do over thirty minutes to get home myself. About three hours later than originally planned!

Today I still have to clean the coach, I was so not up to it last night. Hopefully it won't rain when I cycle to work...