Tempted fate Monday by choosing to ride my motorcycle into Roanoke for a meeting that began at 6:30 p.m.  The National Weather Service said thunderstorms would hit Floyd County around 9 p.m.

The meeting should be over by 8, I figured, giving me just enough time to get home before the heavens opened up.

Wrong.

At 8:30 p.m., I was about a mile north of Copper Hill when the deluge came. With visibility down to nothing and both me and the bike soaked, I eased into J & J Market's lot, parked under the awning that protects the gas pumps and sought shelter under the roof of the front porch of the store.

Called Amy. She said it was raining at home so I decided to wait out the storm, dry out and change into rain gear for the final leg home.

Over the next 45 minutes, the rain ebbed and flowed but didn't stop. I could only imagine our driveway washing down the slope once again under the force of all this water.

The rain continued. At 9:30 I climbed back aboard the Harley and headed south on U.S. 221 in the wet, thankful that I had replaced a worn front tire last week. The rain continued to pelt down for the final 9 miles to Poor Farm Road but began to let up as I turned and headed for Sandy Flats.  By the time I got to Greenbriar Lane, the rain stopped and the road was, for the most part, dry.  So was the driveway.

Amy said the storm dumped several inches of rain in our back yard and the woods at the rear of our property but very little on the front yard or the driveway.

When it comes to rain, this has been a strange year.