Empty office

Usually the rains don't come until the afternoon, but, when I woke up this morning, they had come early, in full force. The sound of the rain pouring on the tile roof made it difficult to get out of bed and even harder to leave my front doorway and walk to the office. Even with my raincoat, I was pretty well soaked by the time I arrived at the office a few minutes after eight o'clock. I was nervous that I would be the last to arrive, but when I opened the door, my office, which is normally full of at least eight data techs, a few counselors, several nurses and a couple lab techs, I saw no one. The office was completely empty, and it was obvious that no one had been there yet today. After a few minutes, one of my expatriate coworkers walked in. She was confused as I was, and we began to wonder if perhaps today was a holiday that had not been announced (amazingly, this is not a completely uncommon occurrence). Since there was no one to ask for clarification, and since even if it were a holiday, we were both already in the office, we began to work. Two hours later, the rains stopped, and approximately half an hour after that, people began to show up for work. At that point it became clear. I had forgotten that no one wants to get wet on their walk to the bus or the moto, so when it rains in the mornings, no one comes to work until after the rains have stopped. The rain is actually a valid excuse to come to work two and a half hours late, and I really can't argue with that.