Rain

I was just over at Baileyandme2's blog where she showed pictures of her redone kitchen in an old house similar to mine. Our styles are very different, as she is all about leaf green, pink, mismatched plates and silverware, and all kinds of cool little antiquey touches I like to see but would never think to do myself.

So while our giftings and styles are very different, she inspires me to make things beautiful in my setting.

But that's not what I'm writing about. Among other things, she wrote:

It was rainy when I took most of these pics.

When it rains- I feel happy like people do on a high.

I`m serious. I love rain.

I read that and thought Wait. She loves rain? It makes her happy? There really are people like that?

Apparently so.

I think she should come to Oregon and be deliriously happy all winter.

We've had 18.47 inches of rain since January 1st, which is about 5 inches below normal, not that I've noticed any drought going on. In this "rain-year," since October 1st, we've had 31.88 inches, 12 inches below normal.

Most of this rain has fallen in intermittent showers or a steady drizzle rather than snow or thunderstorms followed by three days of sunshine like they have in the Midwest.

Here, we say things like, "When the sun came out accidentally today I noticed the cobwebs in the window." And we don't use umbrellas. And, like I read on a you-know-you're-from-Oregon-if site the other day, we think it's normal for our grandparents to drive 65 mph in rain without giving it a second thought.

I remember flying out of Eugene one time and when we popped through the clouds the sun was shining brightly of course and I realized I had forgotten that the sun keeps shining on the other side of the clouds.

When the weather happens to be sunny and warm for a couple of days, as it was last week I think, we all head outside like wasps out of a nest and weed flower beds like crazy and go on walks and tilt our heads back and look at how blue the sky is.

And we get very tired of the rain, and many of us fight a dreadful winter depression with strange glowing lamps and mad-scientist vitamin concoctions.

Well, me and a lot of others, but not quite everyone. Come to think of it, my very own daughters love rain, and lying in bed at night listening to it spatter on the windows. One of the sad things about Emily's illness has been that what she loved made her sick. And Amy, when she was living in the dry-bones desert in the United Arab Emirates and it finally finally rained, went out and danced in it and let it pour down on her face.

Oh wait, I think I've told you all this before, like once or twice a year for the last 5 years. Well, it's April, and it's raining, and it doesn't make me happy, and I'm absolutely longing for some good, genuine, warm, bright, steady sunshine.

Quote of the Day:

"Just admit that you don't know much about it."
--Jenny, when I was asked to talk about raising adolescents