It's a plot, I tell you!  A conspiracy!  The forces that be are colluding to keep me from going out to shows at night!

The last show I've been to was the band Big Thief at Variety Playhouse back last November.  I didn't go to any shows in the second half of November, all of December and January, or the first half of February.

It was mostly scheduling and my own taste in music that kept me from shows for that period, but most bands don't tour between Thanksgiving the New Years, anyway.  Last week, though, I was looking forward to ending the drought and seeing the Shreveport band Seratones at the venerable Earl.

But on the day of the performance, a notice was posted on the Earl's web site that due to a death in the family, Seratones were postponing the night's show so they could tend to affairs. The show's been rescheduled for late June.

Damn.  I know my inconvenience doesn't even belong in the same league as the grief the musicians are dealing with, but after waiting all those months, I was anxious to get back out again.  So it goes.

Last night, I had a ticket to see the band Lower Dens, again at The Earl.  I didn't go.

The rain was falling so intensely last night that I wasn't looking forward to going outside at all.  I'd get soaked between the front door and the car, much less between the parking lot and The Earl. And Atlanta traffic is horrible in the rain.  According to Google maps, driving time to The Earl, which is a mere eight miles away, was 45 minutes due to the rain-clogged traffic.

Still, a little rain hasn't stopped me from going out to other shows, and I was still considering braving the elements and the traffic.  That's when water started coming back underneath my kitchen door again and flooding the floor.  I used some old t-shirts as rags to dam the gap beneath the door and soak up water, but it didn't take long for the shirts to get saturated and the floodwaters to break through.  

I put some other shirts down in their place and threw the wet ones in  the dryer. By the time they were dry, the new shirts on the floor were saturated and needed replacement.  For then next couple of hours, I was running the dryer constantly and cycling t-shirts between the kitchen door and the dryer.  

I didn't want to leave and let the elements do what they willed to my kitchen, especially if it meant sitting in traffic for 45 minutes in that abysmal downpour.  Even if it meant missing Lower Dens and kissing off the $18 for the ticket.

The water has been getting in beneath the door when the rain gets so intense that the gutters overflow and start dumping water right at the back door.  Yes, I've cleaned the gutters, but I really need new ones and can't replace them until the new roof is installed, which in turn can't be done until it finally stops raining.

And there's no end in sight.  According to the NWS, 2.5 inches of rain fell yesterday alone, and other than sun forecast for Friday and Saturday, nothing but rain and more rain is in the forecast for the next 10 days.  To make it even more frustrating, the national radar maps shows the skies over the entire rest of the United States to be clear, except for one persistent train of wet weather extending from west Texas to North Carolina dumping record amounts of rain on Atlanta and north Georgia.

I've got tickets to still another show Saturday night, and so far the forecast is still looking favorable for that night.  Barring another death in the family or a surprise change of weather, I might finally make it out.