Rain, Thunder, Fire Trucks, and Fallen Trees = Lights Out.

Last night was a weird one. It started out ordinary enough, with plans of a group dinner for a friend living out of town. It was for around 7PM, at the Korean Grill House on Yonge. Let’s just say there was minimal communication that afternoon and night.

At around 6PM, I receive a text message telling me that things were running late, and to push dinner for 9ish. I guess I should mention a few things here. First, the Korean Grill House is an all you can eat joint. Secondly, I purposely had a light lunch (I don’t wake up early enough for breakfast) to truly enjoy dinner. And so, as you can imagine by around the time I got that text, I was a hungry dude. My predicament was that I couldn’t really grab a bite, well because it was pretty close to dinner. But what could I really do? So I just said whatever.

Fast forward to around 8PM. CP24 was forecasting a thunder storm for that evening. Of course, with first-hand experience of the channel’s shoddy predictions – and with a hoody and Blue Jay cap in hand, I passed on the umbrella. I also figured that asides from the walk to the bus-stop, and the short walk from the subway station to the restaurant, my exposure to the elements would be quite minimal.

So far so good. Got to the subway station, and was five minutes away from the joint. Running early as well, since apparently 9ish = a 9:40 reservation. Why they couldn’t tell me the reservation time from jump…I’ll never know. But I digress. So I arrive at the restaurant around half an hour early, and decide to take a stroll down Yonge street for the time being. So far CP24 was predictably wrong, while there were signs of showers, a few droplets was the most extreme it got.

At 9:30 I returned to the restaurant, and decide to wait outside, expecting to bump into people as they arrived. Ten minutes pass, no signs of anyone. I get a text telling me that there were already some people inside the restaurant. I thought to myself, how could that happen? Even if the restaurant had a shady back-alley entrance, I’m pretty sure my friends wouldn’t go out of their way to using the front. Still, I opted to wait for the late-arriving guest of honor, and patiently stood outside the grill house.

By this time, the rain was pouring, it appears that CP24 was right, and thunder and lightning ensued. Fortunately the doors to the restaurant were sheltered. So I stood waiting, getting the odd chuckles at pedestrians frantically running in the rain – until I get another text, once again telling me that people were already inside, this time telling me that they were on the second floor. Initially I thought, awesome. One of the reasons I refused on going into the restaurant in the first place was that I wasn’t sure where people were already seated, nor did I know what name the reservations were put under. Then, sheer horror. See, I’ve eaten at this grill house before, and never noticed stairs to an upper level. I’ve also eaten at other chains, and in particular one where I was seated on a second level. That restaurant, also on Yonge street (although further south).

So with the rain pouring, I strapped on the hoody, and jetted for the subway station. Soaked I was. But I was more worried about my walk/run between the next station, and the correct grill house – particularly because I wasn’t really sure on the distance.

But once I got out of the station (Dundas) my worries were gone. Sure it was still raining heavily, but I was already wet. Also, seeing people in tees and shorts, casually walking in the storm, made me at ease.

I arrive at the restaurant, have a laugh, a drink, and good food – and reveled at my interesting evening.

But little did I know, that my night wasn’t yet complete. Got on a subway home, ordinary enough. Got on a bus, again ordinary enough. But once I got off my stop, I noticed that the traffic lights weren’t on. I also noticed a Toronto Hydro van, driving off. I turned into the street, and noticed darkness, I mean even the street lights were off. What made it worse my lacking of eye glasses I needed to see. When I was a block away from my street/house, I noticed a flashing fire truck, and firefighters observing the area. I put two and two together, and said hey, thunderstorms and electricity don’t make the best combination. I proceeded to walk around the fire truck, pass a number of firefighters and walk over some lying power lines on the side walk. I turned to my left to see a power post lying on the sidewalk. But still, continued walking – pass firefighters and over wires. I venture on, and hear a neighbor telling me to be careful. I probably didn’t need the advice, but I found it curious that it was a neighbor and not the ten firefighters I walked by and were in front of me to say a word.

I turned into my block, only to see that a huge part of a tree, blocking the road and sidewalk. I stood staring at it for a moment, wondering on whether I had to take another route. Funny enough, I noticed that I could probably walk underneath part of the obstruction. Again I stood there for a bit, waiting on someone to tell me otherwise. No one did, so I carefully walked underneath the hanging part of the tree, only to be stopped by the infamous yellow tape. The only difference was I was facing the back of it, meaning that the tape was meant to prevent anyone from walking into the area I just so obliviously journeyed through. I laughed to myself, and lowered under the yellow tape, and walked into a pitch black house, flipped open my cell-phone and like a flashlight, used it to get up the stairs, into my room, and called it a night.

….