Yesterday was a rainy day that had started out as just a cloudy, dreary day. I had missed the weather report that morning but it looked to me like it was going to be OK to ride my scooter in. And I knew this was the day I would pass 10,000 miles because I started the day less than the 30 miles from that goal and I have a 30 mile round-trip each day. Also similar to the day I was going to fly, I could see this day approaching. As I crept closer to 10,000, I could pinpoint "the day" more and more closely. So, maybe I pushed it a bit in deciding to take the scooter to work that day. But it did look fine that morning.
But as the day progressed, clouds piled up on the horizon and the air felt more and more like rain. I watched the radar on the local TV station website and you could see a big blob of rain heading our way. Would it arrive before I left and pass through before I would start my ride or would it hold off until after I'd arrived home? Or would it hit at just the wrong time? I wanted to stop and take a picture of the odometer when the big event occurred but I didn't want to do that in a rainstorm. So, I ended up worrying more about getting home dry than worrying about memorializing the odometer reaching 10,000 miles. Plus, I was facing two pretty big problems at work and that took precedence over everything. I didn't want to just leave early before the rain arrived because I had work that needed to be done.
Finally, the time to leave arrived and it hadn't started to rain. I don't usually watch the clock but in this case, I'd done all I could do on my work for the day and it made no sense to stay later than necessary. I ran out and jumped on my scooter and headed out. I kept an eye to the sky and could see things building up ahead of me. It was going to hit but when? Fortunately, I was able to keep my concentration better than I did when I was 12 years old and I watched the odometer slowly read 9,999.8 and then 9,999.9. Making sure to keep my eyes on the road ahead and only glance at the odometer, I finally saw it go to 10,000.0 and I found a place to pull off. I snapped the picture you see here and then made sure to stuff my camera under my jacket as I headed home.
Less than five minutes later, the rain hit. It was heavy and wind driven but Id been in worse. I was glad my camera was safely protected but I was also glad the the rain tapered off after a while. I got wet but I wasn't drenched. But to me, the best part was that it proved that in the 49 years since I missed my chance to fly, I had learned to focus my mind a little better and to make and keep priorities better than I did back then. Who says getting older is a bad thing?
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