Or not. Last week my great aunt and I were going to go to Sears in the mall to get my eyes checked. My glasses have been broken for a while now, and I haven’t had a real eye exam in over 5 years, so I am in desperate need of some new frames and a new prescription. We ended up not going because Cynthia heard on the news that it was going to storm. It ended up briefly raining that evening. We finally went yesterday. The news had called for rain again, but only scattered showers. So we ventured out. Getting to South Hills Village is even more complicated than it has been in the past. More and more bus and street car services are being cut, so now it usually takes a street car and a bus both ways. First you have to go downtown than catch the street car that goes all the way out to South Hills Village. Or you have to take the street car halfway to SHV, then take on the rest of the way. Like I said, either way you have to do it twice, because there are almost no street cars going all the way there anymore. Luckily, there was one a little after two, so we caught a bus and went a ways to Mt. Lebanon because Cythia didn’t want to walk up all the hills to got to the street car near us. We waited about 20-30 minutes both times for the bus and street car. When we got to the mall and into Sears one of the people working there said the eye doctor was at lunch and to check back after 3. So we went to get my Visa gift card first. I always get Visa gift cards twice a year, once with my birthday money, and then in the early spring with my Christmas money. I’ve been doing this for years and never had a problem before, but this time the woman didn’t understand that I wanted ALL of the money on there. I had $100, and it’s about a $3 activation fee. So whatever money I have I get whatever left over put on the card. She just couldn’t understand that. So she only put $95 on there and gave me a two dollars and nickle back. I was so pissed. I don’t do this very often and I didn’t have a lot of money to begin with, every dollar counts.

It was after 3 when we went back to Sears and the eye doctor still wasn’t there. We waited for a while, but I started to feel sick so we gave up and went to eat at Eat n Park. The day hadn’t been great so far, but it wasn’t exactly bad. I got my card, and I got a nice lunch. It was near the end of the meal that things started to go downhill at a fast pace. I was seated facing the window so I noticed it getting darker and darker outside, and then wind started to pick up. The trees outside were really flailing. Then it started to rain. Then pour. Until some moments you couldn’t even see more than a few feet outside. I told my aunt she said the weatherman had said “a chance of showers” not “a chance of armagedon”. Like most of the people in there we waited it out. One of the waitresses said they had gotten a call from someone saying they were being advised on the news not to drive. In terms of severity, there have actually been worse storms. It was quite windy and rained a lot, but except for a lot of lightning flashes in the clouds, and probably no more than three cloud to ground lightning strikes, and one big thunder/lightning clap, at was pretty uneventful. The rain was heavy though. It was even coming in one of Eat n Parks windows. The lights also blinked a few times. But nothing gave any indicator of what we were to see later. (more…)