Eat Dessert First

I was driving home from the cottage yesterday and admiring the show Mother Nature was putting on up ahead on the horizon.

Suddenly it occurred to me that as interesting as these cloud formations were, I needed to focus less on taking pictures and more on my driving as I was about to drive headlong into this weather.  Sure enough, the rain began to fall shortly after that.  Big fat raindrops. 

Just a few at first but very quickly, a whole bunch of them.  So many, that several cars ahead of me pulled off to the side of the road to wait for the weather to pass, since we couldn't see very much at all out the windshield, even with the wipers on high speed. 

Good idea, I thought, and turned off at the next intersection, which turned out to be a cul de sac with some large, pretty homes.  I sat in my car and watched the water cascade down someone's driveway.

It was only a few minutes before the storm passed over and the rainfall slowed down and soon stopped altogether, allowing me to head back out on the road home and enjoy some more interesting cloud views.

I thought this one looked like the Michelin man
going for a walk!

This was the day after a long night that included several hours spent waiting in Emerg after my sister was stung several times by wasps as she was mowing the lawn Saturday evening just before 9 pm. She started to have an obvious allergic reaction within minutes of being stung so I quickly gave her a Benadryl that I just happened to have in my purse (thank goodness!) and called 911.  The volunteer firefighters that serve the area where our cottage is located arrived first, took her vitals, gave her oxygen and waited with us until the ambulance arrived.  The paramedics gave her an epinephrine shot and some medicine for her asthma, as she had begun to wheeze.  They then bundled her onto a stretcher and drove off to the nearest hospital, half an hour away (my sister said it was very exciting to ride in the fast moving ambulance with the lights on, although they only used the siren when traffic got in their way. She was definitely feeling better by then!).  I followed in my car and by the time I arrived, she was already in a cubicle being treated and my mother was in the waiting room.  We were shown inside very soon after that and told she would need to stay for 3 to 4 hours for observation, in case she had another reaction once the medicine wore off.  By 2 a.m., she got the all clear and then we had to wait another hour or so until the doctor signed her out, with prescriptions for allergy medications to take for the next week and most importantly, one for an epi pen to have on hand in case of a future incident. 

Quite a scary episode at the beginning but luckily, it all worked out for the best.  Many thanks to the very efficient and kind emergency personnel - everyone was great and in the case of the men, just as cute and entertaining as you would want your guardian angels to be!

Just another couple of lessons on how things can change very quickly without much notice, and go from bad to worse and then hopefully get better again, whether it's a health emergency or bad weather. 

Also a good reminder that life is short and you should eat dessert first, as we'd finished dinner and decided to do a few chores before having dessert - mowing the lawn for my sister and washing the outside windows for me - while it was still light outside.  The Timbits (a.k.a. donut holes) we had in Emerg a few hours later were good but not as tasty as the cupcakes we'd left behind at the cottage!