It's Sunday afternoon. Everything I had on my list of things to do this weekend are now finished with this blog I'm writing. I really didn't know what to write about. As always, I wanted it to be interesting. I just couldn't come up with a good idea...and then it started raining. Rain during the week isn't extraordinary. You get through it the best you can. You complain about it. You commiserate with everyone about it. It's something fun to talk about when you're safely out of it. Rain on the weekend is usually a pain. Your plans for fishing and picnics depend on good weather cooperating, and in the summer in Florida, the one thing you can depend on is that it's probably going to rain in the afternoon.
Adventures in flooded roads and terrifying thunderstorms can be what the rain's about in South Florida. We live with Thunderbumpers and Palmetto Pounders when the rain comes down in solid sheets. It isn't about raindrops. And if you think you'll be able to make it from your parked car to the safety of your house or business, forget about it, 5 seconds in it and you're soaked. That's one of the great conflicts of living with the rain in South Florida. You can see the storms far away as you drive through clear weather. Then you drive through them or they continue on their windy ways and it's clear again. So if you're patient you wait it out. Usually it's over in 20 minutes or so, but sometimes you get impatient and you make a break for it. I guess for every time I ran for the car or jumped out of the car to quickly get inside and beat the rain, about half the time I've dried myself off as I watched the rain stop and the sun appear again. You just never know.
It's not a joke though and you have to respect it. All the local parks have lighting detectors and as soon as they go off you have to take shelter if you value your life. It kills people from time to time down here. But today is just a steady rain, no lightning and no thunderstorms to shatter the soft cadence of a steady rain.
Also I don't have any plans to play outside today, so my apologies to anyone's whose plans are spoiled by the wet weather. And I don't live in an area that floods with a heavy rain, so I don't have to struggle to reach my car or wonder how deep that massive puddle is on the street to my house and if I'll be able to get through it without flooding my car. It's just a nice rain on a peaceful day, and it sounds pretty, comforting too.
Being inside and knowing that I don't have to go out, well, honestly, I enjoy a ferocious thunderstorm. I don't envy people who have to drive in it or someone whose roof finally gives weigh and they find themselves in the misery of living in an indoor rainstorm, but there's still something nervously peaceful about it. I like watching the heavy rain come gushing down my gutters and rushing out the downspout. It's a great a show as long as you're safe and comfortable inside. I don't like losing electricity and that happens sometimes. But when everything's perfect, and I have no reason to be outside, when the thunder and lighting has moved past, then I like the rain. Nature's beauty. Who doesn't love rainbows, or the majesty of seeing a double rainbow on your way home from a hard day at work? And how many times have you seen thick black billowy clouds open a hole and marvel at the gleaming rays of sunlight spreading out over the shallow sky. You always think of God, it's so beautiful. It can break up even your worst mood, it's just so stunning.
Well, for now the rain is slowing down, and so am I. The weekend's over and the final chorus of raindrops is drifting away. I'm grateful for this brief interlude, this gift of nature. Rain, water falling from the sky, is a pretty cool miracle.
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