My plan yesterday was to walk to a GameStop, reserve a copy of the Playstation 3 version of Mirror's Edge (for the free runner's bag), and on the way back eat dinner at a Subway restaurant and go grocery shopping.

The weather had other plans.

There was heavy rain early in the morning, and though it was night when I went out to do these errands and I thought that the rain had long stopped, I took an umbrella to be safe.

A good decision. I felt raindrops immediately after I got outside.

But it was a light rain. It was enough rain that I needed to open my umbrella, but it was no reason for me to change my plans.

After walking about two blocks, the rain and wind picked up and I saw lightening.

I was starting to feel uncomfortable, but I was already outside, so I decided to continue on my way.

Another block and my umbrella became useless. It was above my head, but it was not helping me keep dry. My shirts and pants were soaked, and I could feel water moving around in my shoes with every step. (At least I was smart enough to wear my watch with a metal bracelet; otherwise I would now be in need of a new watch strap.)

The rain was now coming down so fast and hard that it looked like it would cause some buildings to flood—and as I heard on the news when I got home, it did.

Then the tornado sirens rang.

There was no way that I was going to walk four miles to GameStop in this weather, but I felt that I had to do something. I was stubborn. If I walked home without accomplishing any of my errands, I would have "lost" to the weather.

I was about a block from a Subway. I thought about going inside, eating and declaring victory against the weather, but the place was packed (probably more because no one inside wanted to go outside in the then current weather than because a lot of people were eating there). In my then current condition, I did not want to sit so close to so many people for a relatively long period of time.

Besides, I was out of soap and fruit, and low on milk.

I walked three more blocks in the still increasingly heavy rain, wind and lightening to the grocery store. When I got there, I saw what must have been at least 30 people standing just inside the exit, waiting for the rain to slow.

One woman, who appeared to be in her mid- to late-20's, could not help but laugh at me as I entered the store.

At least I was wearing dark clothing—a charcoal gray dress shirt; dark brown heather T-shirt and black, non-pleated chinos. I saw someone else who got stuck in the rain wearing a white shirt. You could see his skin underneath.

But I was in. Victory over the weather was now a foregone conclusion.

I walked down the aisles, my shoes making squishy sounds with every step, leaving a trail of water behind. One employee noticed, looked angry (probably because he was going to have to mop up after me), but tried to show a sense of humor about it by attempting to talk to me about it.

Alas, I was too wet, cold and exhausted to think coherently and carry on a conversation. I didn't say anything to him, nor to the cashier who (I think) said pretty much the same things. I hope that I didn't come off as rude.

And after I paid for my groceries, I walked home. The rain and wind (but not the lightening) had slowed considerably since entering the grocery store, but I was still glad that I chose to buy fewer items that I normally would. It was still raining hard enough that I needed to hold my umbrella above my head, which meant that all grocery bags had to be held in one hand.

Victory over the weather had been achieved.

Unfortunately, it seems that the weather is a sore loser. I successfully walked to the grocery store and back in severe weather, but now many of my cell phone's buttons and keys perform incorrect functions or do not work at all, lights are lit for no reason, the touch screen asks to be re-calibrated randomly and frequently and it turns on for seemingly no reason (whether in standby mode or turned all the way off). Also, my portable music player is displaying the text "Firmware Problem" with an icon of what appears to be a Windows dialog box above it; I cannot even turn the player off because its buttons and USB port are not responding to anything.

Now if you will excuse me, I am busy. I plan to sneeze nonstop for the next two days, and when I am finished with that, I may need to buy a new mobile phone, portable music player and pair of black casual shoes that look like black dress shoes.