Riding the storm out

Still in Cleveland

I couldn't tell you whether I was in Hough or Fairfax, but one of those districts is where I went for dinner last night in an effort to avoid the usual downtown-hotel eateries with overprix fixe. All I know about either is that Randy Newman singled out Hough in his song "Rednecks" as being on par with such urban hellholes as East St. Louis, but it didn't seem so to me.

Tonight I decided I'd drop in on a downtown watering hole, and since it was only about a block and a half away, I figured I'd walk. It had been raining most of the day, and I figured I could do the distance without getting soaked. Which I did.

Nothing spectacular on the inside: a 40ish buppie couple on their first meet-and-greet, and a handful of guys watching Sportscenter as though the Second Coming was being announced. And me, wondering how long it's been since I've even set foot in a watering hole.

The food was good, the drinks were cold, and the rain started in earnest about twenty steps from the door. I was fairly well drowning by the time I got back to the hotel, although I was still sufficiently functional to ask no one in particular, "Don't they have any drainage in this town?"

Oh, well. Into each life a little rain must fall. It certainly hasn't been falling back home. And the sun, even as I type, is trying to make some sort of cameo appearance in the midst of all this thunder.

Posted at 6:13 PM to World Tour '03