Frederick, Maryland
June 29, 2012
Today was a time in my life that my faith in God has been tested twice in the same day. I firmly believe that God is always watching over me despite the fact that I have sinned against his will. Now I have come to a conclusion: first, I am now a believer on what my two Facebook friends have posted on my Wall that said, God is always present when there is love in your heart. The second one is never to underestimate the power of prayers.
It was Friday afternoon around 3:00 PM, when I heard the sweet voice of Aida, my sweetheart on the other end of the phone line asking me if I could pick her up earlier. She had been working ten hours a day for the last several days and she wanted to unwind. I picked her up at 5:00 PM at her place of work. We proceeded to Washingtonian Center where AMC Loews Rio Cinemas 18 is located. It is now becoming our favorite hang-out on Friday nights, which is our date night. After buying tickets for the movie Prometheus, we decided to have an early dinner as the movie won't be showing until 7:30 PM.
We agreed to dine at Guapos Restaurant which is within the theater complex. I ordered chicken pajitas with cold Corona, a Mexican imported beer while Aida had beef pajita and a Margarita grande. We both enjoyed our food and drinks, and the jalapenos were really hot! She shared with me her Margarita, while the waiter was taking pictures of us. After dinner we decided to watch the rock group playing just outside the restaurant near the waterfront. I found out that on Friday and Saturday nights every year, there are free outdoor concerts in the Washingtonian Center during summer.
Although it was hot and humid outside, we enjoyed listening to the rock group because they were playing our favorite songs, such as "Have You Ever Seen The Rain" by Creedence Clearwater Revival and "Tequila Sunrise" by the Eagles, to name a few. We also met Minerva, one of Aida's friends, who was also watching the band by herself. They had a little chit chat while dancing to the beat of the music.
After a while, her friend finally said good-bye. We decided to go inside the movie theater as it was already past 7:00 PM, and besides it was getting more humid outside. We slowly proceeded to our chosen seats and found out there were only a couple inside, so I guess we were a bit early. The seats got filled as the scheduled showtime was about to begin.
The movie did not turn out to be as hyped in the preview, so I started to get bored although I was impressed by the cinematic effects as we watched in IMAX 3D format. We were half-way through the movie when all of a sudden we saw blinking lights on the sides of the screen and a warning voice came out from nowhere as if they were part of the movie. I looked around and found out that those were warning lights and the voice from the microphone became clear to me. The management was giving us a warning to vacate the premises because of imminent danger. We slowly and calmly went out of the theater and joined everybody outside the theater building.
Within five minutes the fire truck with blazing lights and wailing sirens arrived. Shortly thereafter, another one came. I was impressed by the response time of the fire department and how fast their crew checked and analyzed the possible threat, or whatever danger there was. It turned out to be a false alarm, so we were ushered back to our seats to resume watching the movie.
After the movie we decided to take a walk, and look for an ice cream parlor as we were getting thirsty. We reached the ice cream parlor after a short walk, only to find out that it was already closed. We then decided to go home to have our homemade margaritas instead of ice cream.
On our way home we were surprised by the gusts of wind in-front of us, while the leaves began twirling around followed with abrupt and heavy rain. All of a sudden the surrounding became pitch black as we passed by Germantown. It was followed by random flashes of lightning, as if we were blanketed by them. It was accompanied by the roaring thunder, as if they were rolling across the towering trees along I-270. For a moment I lost control of the steering wheel because we were swaying sideways, and the front wheels were not touching the ground at all! I tightened my left hand grip on the steering wheel while I put on the sign of the cross with my right hand and began to pray. Lord, forgive me for I have sinned against you and my fellowmen. If it's my time to die at this unholy hour, I beg you to take my spirit. Please spare my sweetheart and protect her from any harm through Christ our Lord, Amen... As I finished my short prayer, I regained control of the car. At the same time, I heard a frightened voice frantically telling me to pull over. I switched on the car's flashing lights and kept on driving at a turtle speed because there was no way for me to pull over with cars on my right lane moving at the same speed as mine. As I reached the overpass at Clarksburg, I slowly stopped under it. The cars behind me followed suit. I felt unsafe where I temporarily parked with engine running, because on my left lane I could see big rigs rushing by. I figured out sooner or later one of them could hit somebody behind me and possibly cause a major disaster.
When the downpour of heavy rain subsided a little bit, I decided to drive again at 20 to 30 MPH trying to step down on the pedal every chance I got, until I reached another overpass. This time the left lane was open, and I was able to park on the shoulder of the road beneath the overpass. I kept on repeating my short prayer while I try to calm down my sweetheart. I advised her not to touch any metal part of the car, so she won't get electrocuted just in case we got hit by lightning. As we sat still trying to weather the storm, the lyrics - "there's a calm before the storm" from the song "Have You Ever Seen The Rain," played back in my mind. Meanwhile, flashing lightning seemed to hit us from all directions followed by roaring thunder which occured in cadence with the music. That's how it played in my ears anyway. We stayed here until the raging thunderstorm slowly weakened, as it moved away from us.
I decided to take advantage of the situation, and slowly but surely drove safely back home. When we finally got home, I thanked God for hearing my prayers. I believed that during our entire ordeal God is with us because I felt no fear at all. I knew God works in so many mysterious ways; whatever He plans for me and my love, I would gladly accept my role.
The next day I read the Washington Post report online to find out more about what really happened the night before... Between 9:30 and 11 p.m. Friday night, one of the most destructive complexes of thunderstorms in memory swept through the entire D.C. area. Packing wind gusts of 60-80 mph, the storm produced extensive damage, downing hundreds of trees, and leaving more than 1 million area-residents without power.
Racing along at speeds over 60 mph, the bowing line of thunderstorms formed west of Chicago around 11 a.m. and by midnight approached the Atlantic ocean. It left a massive trail of destruction spanning from northern Illinois to the Delmarva Peninsula. The National Weather Service has logged well over 800 reports of damaging winds.
On Friday, a historic, record-setting heat wave covered a sprawling region from the Midwest to the Southeast. All-time high temperatures records of 109 were established in Nashville and Columbia, South, Carolina and tied in Raleigh and Charlotte which hit 105 and 104. Here in Washington, D.C., the mercury climbed to an astonishing 104 degrees (breaking the previous record set in 1874 and 2011 by two degrees), our hottest June day in 142 years of records. As this stifling air bubbled northward, clashing with the weather front draped from near Chicago to just north of D.C., thunderstorms erupted. They grew in coverage and intensity as they raced southeast, powered by the roaring upper level winds and fueled by the record-setting heat and oppressive humidity in their path.
As I finished reading this report by the Washington Post, it became crystal clear to me that we just had a harrowing night of close encounter with death that night of June 29, 2012. This will be forever remembered as long as I live...
