rain

I actually love rain. It comes from visiting Cleve Bradley, my step-grandmother, whose house had a tin roof. One night in the rain sleeping under a tin roof will make you love rain forever.

When I was 10 or 12, somewhere in there, I shot 100 foul shots at the basketball goal in our yard every day, no matter what the weather. And shooting foul shots in the rain was the best. I'd end up soaked and peeled off my clothes in the bathroom after such an outing and wrapped myself in towels dried by the air and sun and not a clothes dryer and would lay on my bed, covered with towels for a while and ponder how wondrous the wet basketball felt in my hands and how being wet was like being born, since we come from the sea. (I was a science geek at that age age and pondered how amazing it was that water gave life....)

I love rain so much that I thought at one time I should live in Seattle until I found out that the annual rainfall in Connecticut is just about the annual rainfall in Seattle.

I was just on the back porch smoking a cigarette (OK, I know it is socially unacceptable to smoke! I get it! Leave me out of your political correctness!) Looking toward the street light on the front edge of our property and I noticed droplets of rain falling from the lines, golden and wondrous. At first imagined there were fireflies dropping from the rain but then, after a moment or two of actual thought process, realized we won't have fireflies in Connecticut until July or so.

Anyhow, it was beautiful to see the rain falling, catching the golden light of the street lamp. Another reason to love rain.

I especially like rain in September on the beach on Oak Island, North Carolina, where we go every September. There is always lightening far out in the Atlantic, streaking down to touch the water there. Again, the beauty of a rainy night.

Our daughter Mimi is with us for a day or two. She has a job that takes her back and forth from NYC to the Berkshires--she's the new development officer for Jacob's Pillow, a dance place. Tim, her fiancee is going to be away for a week doing work stuff in Chicago  (for Linked In, whatever that really is) so she came to see us for a couple of days rather than driving back to Brooklyn. The fact that Mimi is under our roof and it's raining is yet another reason I love the rain because my love for Mimi is boundless.

Our Puli dog doesn't like the rain, so taking him out for his 10 pm walk is going to be a pain. But he loves Mimi like I do and has been ecstatic since she arrived this afternoon, following her around, laying outside her bed room door, smitten, so maybe Mimi being here will make him not so upset about going out to pee in a half hour or so.

Rain, like Mimi being in our house, makes me feel safe, good, comfortable, assured, warm....