The Drive Home from Hell

My day went well even with a million things crossing my desk. I finally ordered the back up unit... almost $9000.. this company has more money than brains me thinks... of course it will come and be installed while I'm on vacation so you can bet I know where I'm going to be one day during my vacation...sigh..

I left work at 5:30pm.. it was very dark outside and was starting to rain. On a normal day it takes me anywhere from 35 to 40 minutes to get home. I arrived at 9:30pm tonight....

For starters I stopped off at Home Depot in Laval to see some of their BBQ's. They had some pretty good ones but I swear most are huge enough to cook food for a small third world nation. It's actually silly... might just as well do it indoors with all the gizmos and attachments most come with. I wanted a simple single gas BBQ... there were a couple by Wrangler but with small propane tanks or in fact they were charcoal or electric grills. I was a bit hesitant... A cool young guy came over to help me out and in the end I just bought a new burner and will try that first before delving into the new world of gas BBQ's. They don't even use lava rocks anymore... Someday I swear contractors will find a way to swing out the kitchen into the garden to cook your food and swing it back into the house when you are done..

When I left Home Depot it really looked threatening outside;



I headed down the A15 in relatively light traffic... the rain really intensified. I even saw a gusher spewing out of a sewer about a meter into the air... weird..



...then around Cote Vertu it came to a halt... and just crawled towards the A40... but crawled in a continuous manner... strange, not the stop and go pattern of cars zippering onto the highway. Gradually it go slower and slower until it stopped. It just stopped for what seemed like forever... but really for about 40 minutes. People were going crazy.



Some guys tried to get ahead by driving up the shoulder past everyone. An 18 wheeler Provigo truck tried to pass everyone on the right and push its way into our lanes... others were jumping the low median to take the westbound lanes... I sat there in the middle of this mess watching everyone try and get out so I advance closer to the A40 but only because cars were somehow leaving the queue... suddenly I saw a car coming right at me... it's front headlights on heading north oin my southbound lane...



Oh man... the rain had poured so heavily it flooded the Met again. The woman from Ontario in the blue car told me the Met was closed due to flooding. The eastbound Met was entirely closed. L'Acadie was again a lake... all cars had to turn around and head back out northward then westward...oyieee... I followed suit and found myself heading out to the west island. I passed ab 18 wheeler in the left lane and the car started to aquaplane at around 100 kph... it scared the shit out of me as I had the median on my left and an 18 wheeler with full water spray on my right and my car not steady on the road... I was fed up and headed to Outback on des Sources and just went there for a beer and supper..

Coming home it was still raining. I wasn't going to go close to any major arteries. I took Gouin all the way to Henri Bourassa. Man beautiful homes on Gouin. It felt like another city... old southern styled homes with huge clasic veranadas... nice vistas of Riviere des Prairies... quite a wealthy area I guess... I felt like a stranger in my own city. Anyways, once onto Henri Bourassa I headed down Pie XI and then to the service road of the met and down Langelier... getting in a 9:30. Despite it all I kept my patience and sense of humor... did the logical thing - get out of it and clear my head and relax... then carry on after the worse was over.

I have no clue how bad it was all over.. if anyone was hurt or any property damage done... the flooding must have been extensive. I called Sheila & Clem to see how they managed. Sheila was on the MEt just before me and before it closed. She said the flood water was rising and it was scaring her how deep it was getting. I think Clem was home but he warned Pascal about it all. It just feels good to not be behind the wheel of my car right now....