I'm Going Diving!

All my scuba gear is packed and I'm leaving in about an hour. Can't forget to pack a lunch.

August 23--You picked up a hitchhiker--I knew it was probably a bad idea but I couldn't leave him standing there out in the rain. It wasn't just rain either. This was a deluge of biblical proportions, a hundred years' rain. He stood staring at my taillights for a moment when I pulled onto the shoulder, probably deciding whether I was going to let him get close and then pull away, but I shifted into Park and took my foot off the brake, then he lifted his duffel bag and jogged to the driver's window. He seemed surprised to see a middle-aged woman rolling down the window. "Ma'am? Are you sure?" I was surprised that he looked to be past forty himself. "I can't let you drown standing up in the dark. I'll unlatch the back hatch; toss your bag in there and come in out of the rain." He gave me a searching look, nodded, and walked to the back of the minivan. He lifted the hatch, put his bag in, and climbed in after it. He had reached to close the hatch when I saw what he was doing. "Come sit up here where the heat's on," I said. "Not right now, ma'am," he said, "maybe when I'm dried off." So we drove through the Midwestern night, me in front and Stoney in back, snug in our dry little bubble, talking and singing along with the oldies on the radio.

Well, crap. I just got a call that my dive buddy has some sort of flu so the diving's off. No scuba for me today. Good thing I hadn't put all the tanks etc. in the van yet.
--Barbara