Fun Stuff

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night

 

correction: It Was a Dark and Stormy Late Afternoon and Evening

     We aren't used to rain storms of such intensity over such a long period of time in my part of the world. Oh we get storms, don't misunderstand. Just a week ago we had an intense hail storm that almost undid hours of work planting annuals. It left a layer of ice crystals on the ground thick enough to make you think someone just cleaned out the world's biggest ice machine in the clouds.

     That hailstorm lasted all of ten minutes, with the accompanying rain and wind sticking around less than two hours. 

     Over the course of the decade we've lived at the foothills of the Rocky Mountain ranges we've seen plenty of intense weather of all sorts. But yesterday was different because the driving rain went on, and on, and on. Buckets of it never ceasing over perhaps six hours before the rain settled down to a lesser rate for several hours more. We had to raise our voices to make ourselves heard, and we live in a well insulated house! (After the first four hours I checked out the basement to see if it was still dry. It was.)

      It brought to mind weather memories from the past. We saw storms like this upon occasion when we lived in Mississippi. A not so pleasant memory for my husband was being caught out in one - in the middle of nowhere, on a motorcycle, accompanied by seventeen year old son. There was no shelter to be had so they pressed on home. To say it was a miserable experience would be a big understatement. 

      But what especially came back were memories of the two monsoon seasons I lived through in The Philippines. A person has no idea what rain can be until you've experienced a tropical climate monsoon season. The rain just never ends; for hours and hours and sometimes days on end. It was often a driving rain, with so much wind power I went through three umbrellas before figuring out they were a waste of time. For several weeks you came to understand you never left the house and went anywhere without getting wet. A water proof cape with a hood worked the best, plus little plastic shoes for the feet so you could just wade through the endless puddles of water.  ( I then understood why the local marketplace offered such a generous supply of these colorful plastic - or vinyl - shoes.)

     When you arrived at your destination you left your cape and plastic shoes to dry at the entryway and changed into the dry footwear you were clutching under the cape. Or, you dried your feet off with the towel thoughtfully provided by your friend and went barefoot  until it was time to leave.  I don't miss that at all.

Light snow winters and dry springs mean wildfires are a big threat during the summer months. At least in our part of the state of Colorado, yesterday's storm and a relatively wet month overall is really a blessing. Home owners who are currently dealing with muddy impassable roads or flooded basements may be reminding themselves of that.