September 20th, 2004
I have been getting some good feedback about my songs. In effect, nearly everybody has liked two songs, and not liked two others. Very interesting stuff. If you have already voted, I thank you for your input.
I plan to keep the survey going for a while longer, so if you haven't already, would you mind taking my totally-100%-anonymous-you-lose-nothing-but-4-minutes-of-your-time survey?
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A couple of weeks ago I started obsessing about the idea of going camping very soon with my wife. Sometimes, with me, once I get an idea into my head, there's no turning back no matter what. And this weekend camping trip was one of those ideas.
She couldn't come Friday night (on account of work) but I could go by myself, scout out a good spot, and then she'd join me for Saturday and Sunday. It was a good logistical solution, since I would set up the campsite and "get established" and then she could join me for the fun.
Well, Friday night things started out well. I got to the park, set up, and spent the better part of an hour getting a fire going (with damp wood and wet ground ... not so easy to do, but I managed). Then I sat down in front of that fire to relax and enjoy the quietude and splendiferous natural environs of the British Columbia Rainforest.
That last word is the key: "rainforest." We don't call it that because it is sunny and warm all the time, do we? Around 11:00 PM a light rain started. I sat for about 10 minutes longer, and then retired to the tent (after making sure my car windows were closed all the way). I timed it pretty well, because it really started to pour heavily once I was safely in my tent.
So I read some of my new book, then played a little more of my adventure game on my computer (doesn't everyone bring their laptop computers camping?) And finally settled down into my extra-super-duper-bring-on-the-Arctic-winds sleeping bag and got warm and toasty very quickly, and started to sleep very restfully.
Until I woke up around 2:45 AM with my feet wet! When I woke up I was totally flummoxed for a moment at the sound. I was sure there was a jumbo jet warming up its engines outside my tent with the roar that was going on. When I quickly got out of my ever-increasingly-wet sleeping bag, I saw that the tent was leaking (which I already deduced). Although this confused me--this was a good tent, and should not leak in a rainfall--I didn't have time to ponder it. I dressed myself and went outside.
Not just rain! A deluge! Nay, a Torrential downpour! Maybe a Cataclysmic niagara signaling doom? I mean, I have lived in BC pretty much all my life. I was born in a rainstorm, forsooth. But I don't think I've seen rain as heavy as this more than two or three times in my life!
With no time to marvel at Nature's ferocity, I got my laptop computer and sleeping bag into my car as quickly as possible, and then got myself into my car as quickly as possible. Leaned back the seat and, miraculously, warmed and dried up enough to go back to sleep.
The next morning, I awoke to discover that the water was so thick in puddles around my car that I couldn't take a single step without getting my feet soaking wet. My boots were buried in the trunk of my car (under the firewood which I optimistically salvaged from the rain the night before) and, as well, I couldn't bear to look inside my tent, which, I suspected, had become a swimming pool.
"This camper here ... we haven't figured it out yet, but he drowned to death--even though he was more than a kilometer from the nearest creek."
"So, boss, are we treating this as 'suspicious'?"
"Naw, I haven't got time to investigate. My basement is flooded ... "
Mmm-hmm.
See, I chose the one weekend when the Lower Mainland set three new rainfall records:
- Most rainfall recorded in a six-hour period ever,
- Most rainfall recorded for a single day ever,
- Rainiest September on record (you will note, of course, that there are still ten days to go, and already we broke the record).
Okay, so I guess I can see now why my tent leaked. Even a good tent cannot withstand 91.4 mm of rainfall (that's how much fell, and that translates to about 3.6 inches of water ... in a single wet night!) It would be bunny-headed to think I could "survive" in that kind of weather.
I got into cell phone range in time to warn my wife that this just wasn't going to be our weekend. She was ready for camping, but as we sat at home on Saturday and listened to the rain (lessened, but still coming down in torrents), we agreed that we should wait until a time when we can be sure that we at least have a chance of staying dry.
And, besides, my laptop's batteries were low.