2/22/13

7:51 and it's still raining.

Has been all day.

A few years ago, North Florida went through a nasty summer drought. Every day I would wake up and check the weather station while I got ready for work. Every day it showed me seven days of grinning, taunting cartoon suns. All the plants died. Even the live oaks, with their deep, behemoth roots, drooped.

That's just not right for this part of the world. Florida is a swamp, a rain forest. They called it the Sunshine State to attract tourists, but a better name would be the Mildew State. The whole ecology depends on on just staying damp all the time. Turns out, so do I.

I started to get depressed. And I am not prone to depression. All those clear blue skies began to weigh on me. I fantasized about storms, about standing out in my yard and letting big, fat raindrops beat on me.  Every read the Ray Bradbury story All Summer in a Day? That opposite of that.

Eventually, frowning clouds showed up on the weather channel and we got some rain, thank god. I don't think I've complained about rain since then, though.

4 comments:

Ms. Moon said...

It is raining as I write this. And it is beautiful. If we want these trees we need to want this rain. Amen.

That Hank said...

It's starting to feel like spring instead of just unseasonably warm winter.

Verdant Earl said...

I love a warm rain. Unfortunately, we are several months away from that here in the dreary, cold Northeast.

Oh, and "deep, behemoth roots"? I approve of this. Very much.

That Hank said...

It's not warm yet, but it's not freezing rain, either. It's headed toward warm.

And thanks. Ever see a tipped over live oak? Me, either. Those suckers run deep.