Unusually heavy showers over this holiday weekend have reminded me of weather I have faced in different locales or times in my life.
Growing up, every year around April, usually the rainiest month in south Texas, I faced a motoring phenomenon that never failed to surprise me — terrify me — as a teenage driver. After a heavy rain or even during an evening shower, the horror of the situation would slap me in the face.
Toads in the road.
Oblivious to the speeding vehicles and certain death roaring around them, hundreds of toads would hop up from the roadside. Scientists have speculated that rain provides toads the happy environment to eat, drink, mate, and breed. Perhaps traveling at night also reduces the number of predators. Whatever the reason, it was the last thing I would be thinking of. Once the sun went down, I would soon be faced with some tough decisions.
Do I wait it out, and hope for the toads to just go home?
Can I make it home, dodging their slippery crawls and clumsy hops?
I would try and set my pace and straddle the toad, passing harmlessly overhead. It is inevitable of course, that at some point I would hit one. Suddenly the toad’s advance interrupted, and an unexpected change of course. Whether his interest was another toad or snacking on a stretched-out earthworm within reach. His fate is…
