Bermuda Triangle of Weather

The only reason I’m writing is in case I’m ever lost. Because I’ve heard many people get lost and are never found in the Bermuda Triangle. Now I don’t live anywhere near the Caribbean. However, I do live in the Bermuda Triangle of weather conditions (Arlington Heights, IL). It never ceases to amaze me how I can leave my job and within five minutes of getting home I enter a Tropical Rain Forest. It’s raining, thundering, lightning—and even a few mysterious (only native to my area) frogs and insects and flora and fauna seem to grow near/in my home. It’s a virtual wonderland.

I should have realized I lived in the Bermuda Triangle of weather when there was a large and rather threatening thunderstorm in my area. Suddenly all the lights, radios, electronics went out. Nothing worked. As I entered my bedroom to find a flashlight I saw something I didn’t expect. Light. However, it wasn’t coming from inside. It was coming from outside my bedroom window. When I opened the shades I got to see a transformer sparking and exploding. I hear that kind of thing happens all the time in the Triangle. Electronics stop working. Things break down unexpectedly. Now, it was probably lightning that set this transformer afire, but I didn’t see it. It was a mysterious sight. And of course my electricity didn’t’ come back on for hours that night.

Then there was the time I was outside, smoking a cigarette and it was balmy (if a little cold). Within moments of my lighting the cigarette the weather changed dramatically, what with the wind chill and the crazy 50-mile per hour winds.

I wouldn’t mind living in the Bermuda Triangle of weather if only I was on some tropical island with coconut drinks, sandy beaches and ocean surrounding me. Instead, I’m in a four-story building with condo developments, a sea of roads and land surrounding me. If I should disappear—at least everyone will know that I’ve been lost in the triangle of weather. Moreover, maybe someday I will return. So if you’re ever visiting Arlington Heights and your compass should go out, and it starts to rain and wind picks up—well, maybe you too will be lost here. And when that happens, maybe I can return to the land of the living (meaning, somewhere else in Illinois).