New York City blows.

The fashion tour was a bit of a disappointment, as Twila mentioned. The little rooms were even hotter, muggier, and stuffier than she described. And they wouldn't let me try anything on. But it got kind of exciting when we left the last showroom, or whatever it was. We took the dingy elevator down to street level and noticed that it had started to rain. Geniuses that we are, we had brought umbrellas. But as we approached the door, we realized that this was no ordinary thunderstorm. The rain was coming down in tsunamis, lightning lit up everything we could see, and the thunder was deafening. Across the street hard-boiled New Yorkers were standing at the windows agape at the fury of the storm. Twila and I recently bought identical umbrellas that can handle very high winds, but it would have been folly to go outside. As we stood in the doorway, waiting, waiting for a break in the storm, the water in the street went from damp to a raging torrent several inches deep. It would have been scary if it hadn't been so fascinating.

We stayed inside watching for 15 minutes or so, then took our chances. We got wet feet, but mostly the storm had passed, and we made it to a restaurant without getting zapped, drowned, or blown away. It was only today that we read the papers and became aware just how severe a storm it really was. Now it goes on our fast-growing list of Famous New York Adventures.