May 30

Last night was a late one. We sat on our friend’s deck looking at the view and listening to tunes. Our kids were in our basement having a sleepover. After relentless pursuit for a sleepover, I finally gave in. The kids pulled an all-nighter. I made it until three am. I slept in to wake up to a fat head and low motivation.

The kids were supposed to sleep in tents in the back yard. There was a forecast with a thunderstorm warning so one of the kids’ parents kiboshed the tent idea.

‘Thunderstorm warning’ was flashing on the top of the screen for the Weather Network. Captain Rob warned me about a coming thunderstorm. My daughter’s friends iPhone was telling her about the coming storm. All the signs have been pointing to a thunderstorm.

I was going to go back out on the boat today, by the time I got moving I was reminded again about the heavy rain and high winds that hovered in the forecast. Rob said not to go out when there is a storm in the forecast. I looked outside at the calm waters in the distance. The sun was peeking through the clouds and the temperature was very mild and calm. ‘What storm?’ I asked myself. I don’t think there is any storm coming.

They say it’s coming, the experts. The weather forecasters are calling for a bad storm. So I stayed home. We put the boat back into the garage. I told the kids were couldn’t go out, it wasn’t worth the risk.

Then the sun came out an hour after the boat was put into its sheltered home. Dark clouds still filled parts of the sky. Yet the lake remained calm, the sky above was clear. It would have been a great afternoon on the water.

Why did I listen to everyone? We could have easily gone out for an afternoon of fun. Instead, the kids played inside. I did more yard work. The evening came and we went for another walk. The sky was filling up with more storm clouds. We could hear thunder rumble in the distance, the thunderstorm was finally arriving. I looked to my wife and then at the sky, I knew we would have been off the water long before the rains came.

The experts said the storm would arrive mid-afternoon. Experts, scientists, weathermen, they all do their best to predict what could happen. These days we all seem to err on the side of caution. Out of an abundance of caution, we missed a fun afternoon. Getting caught in a thunderstorm on the Okanagan Lake can be a harrowing experience. An experience I chose to avoid.

Five minutes after we got home from our walk the lightning struck the lake in a flash. Thunder roared right after. The skies opened up and the long-predicted rains came pouring down. I know it’s ok we stayed home. I know that we were safer sheltering in place. If the storm had come when they predicted we would have got wet, we may have had to deal with winds and rain.

In life we make our choices, we must live with the choices we make. I can’t help but second guess them sometimes. It’s natural to question our choices. Especially when what we are told doesn’t turn out to be accurate. It’s at that point we really become reticent about what we have done.

Our first storm wasn’t as bad in our part of the world as was predicted by the experts. Will there be a second storm? If we shelter in place will it miss us? The thunderstorm was bad, but we could have beat the storm. When the rains finally came they didn’t last very long.

It’s very hard to know the right answer, if we shelter from the potential downpour and it’s only a cloudburst we question why we stayed inside. If the thunderstorm had turned out to be as bad as we were told, we saved ourselves from misery and potential loss. Sometimes I would rather be on the lake and weather the storm than be inside waiting for the rain to come.

I took the safe route and will launch my boat another day.