People who live elsewhere may not be able to fathom the amazing ability to renew that the first soaking rain of the season can have here. It rains so seldom, and not at all in the summer, as a rule, that rain itself becomes odd. Drivers have a terrible time dealing with it, and the roads are so full of slipping and sliding cars, all trying to keep up their usual fast speeds on the slippery streets, that it becomes an occasion for consternation if not wonder when it rains heavily out here. The ground is far less capable of soaking in an abundance of water, and what rain falls tends to fall at once, in large amounts.
I have been in huge flash floods that sweep everything before them. One minute, the ground is dry; the next, water is pouring both out of the sky and over the ground too. Cars, animals, unwary people can be helplessly taken by its power, as the usual empty river channels fill, much like in a scene from the movie Chinatown.
Today, while I was in yoga class this morning, it rained heavily, very heavily, syncopating the movements of body and breath we all did during class. I don't hear well, but even I heard it. I was glad, even smug, because I had thought to wear a raincoat and bring my umbrella, for once, and because my car badly needed washing. Now it is clean.
When I got home, R said that it hadn't rained here it all. That's how it is out here.
3 comments:
No rain in Woodbridge, at all. Have you decided if you are going to move?
Beth
Probably. I may apply to some poetry jobs out of state, but there is not much of a chance I would get one until I get books published, which may take years. So I might as well go through with buying a house here. There is nothing to be lost by that, really. This is my home, after all, and I would hate to leave my son, who needs us, still, even though he no longer lives with us.
I agree, buy a home in Orange County.
Beth
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