The wind shifted to the southeast, which warmed up the air but brought more wind and rain.
We got a message from West Marine that the stovepipe parts Roy ordered last week had arrived. I wanted to wait until tomorrow to get them, but Roy is anxious to complete the installation of the diesel heater, so I left a little after two. By the time I got to Hampton, the rain was coming down in a deluge. Streets and yards were flooded. Buses and trucks got through, but cars were bogging down right and left. One little car had tried to make a right turn and had slipped into a flooded ditch. It was listing 45 degrees to starboard, half submerged in the water. Another car was stuck in the entrance to a parking lot. It couldn't go forward, and it couldn't go backward. Many other cars were sitting along the side of the road, with water up to the tops of their fenders.
Fortunately, by the time the bus reached West Marine, the rain had let up. This time, I got off at the right stop.
When we were in last week, Roy had showed them the banged up piece of pipe and had arranged to exchange it, so I had assumed I wouldn't have to do anything but give them the old pipe and pay for the additional pieces. To my surprise, they gave me a hard time. Usually, West Marine makes exchanges without hesitation, but this time they said the piece of pipe was too beat up and had been used! Of course it hadn't been used; there was no way it could have been used in that shape. I didn't feel like arguing about it, so I said I'd pay for the new one. But then they went ahead and made the exchange.
The rain had messed up all the bus schedules. I had to wait forty minutes for the bus back to downtown Hampton and another hour for the Crossroads bus back to Norfolk. Half a dozen other people were waiting for the Crossroads bus. Some of them had been waiting for two or three hours! Traffic on the bridge was at a standstill, so the buses couldn't get through from Norfolk. When they finally arrived, three buses got there at the same time, but they were still on their way to Newport News, so we had to wait until they went into Newport News, turned around, and came back. It was pitch dark by then, and I was worrying that I might not make it home, but at long last a bus arrived and took me back to Norfolk. The #8 bus was sitting there waiting, so I jumped right on it. A group of people who needed to get home to Hampton had been waiting two or three hours for a bus. The bus I came in on was on its way to the garage. In fact, the last bus to Hampton was supposed to run at 6:45, and it was nearly 7:30 by then. I felt really sorry for those people; they were in the same situation I had been in, not knowing if they'd be able to get home. The driver of the #8 radioed the dispatcher and was told TRT was sending a last bus to take the people home to Hampton. That was good.
It was almost eight o'clock when I reached the boat. Roy had supper all ready, so I didn't have to do anything but eat, watch the news, and go to bed.
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