9 January 2024

There’s a big rain storm going on, the pond is flooding. I love the rain and when the land floods, it washes away and cleanses. The sound of rain is the most complex song written. Dr. Suess’ Mr. Brown described the sound of rain as “dibble dibble dopp dopp”, I can’t say I agree but the attempt is admirable. Sheets is a good adjective with rain, whether it’s falling in sheets like when looking into the distance seeing clumps of lines going together, or when holding a loose sheet of plastic or metal. Giving the sheet a soft shake sounds like rain falling and an intense shaking would be thunderous. Through my whole life my favorite pastime has been watching the rain. When I saw Of Mice and Men a line in the men’s dream is that when it rains they can say heck with work and watch the rain, their dream took root in me. The best part of the Army was when we’d be abandoned in the woods for long stretches of time in the rain. When properly equipped, everything stays dry and I’d rather be working in the rain than sun. About 10 years ago I famously drew up a quadrant graph showing that I like warm, sunny days and cold, wet days. When the traits are mixed into cold, sunny and warm, raining I take issue. I’ve mentally registered a day in basic training as the hottest I’ve ever experienced. The temperature was only 100 degrees F, but there had just been a quick storm and now it was sunny. Additionally we were walking into woods leading to 100% humidity. Wet and dry temperatures are as drastic as people say because temperature is meaningless to a human, the expense of mercury, or when water boils. My body cares about whether it needs to sweat to cool off and whether that sweat can dissipate. When the sweat has no where to go you might as well be wearing a plastic bag.