Rain Storms

"Heavy Rain" Photo by: Stefan Soderstrom

Ahhh...I love the sound of the rain. I don't love the howling wind, the tornado sirens, the white lightening that makes you check your neighbor's roof for a smoking, black hole, the thunder that makes you jump just a little bit (admit it - you know you do), or the sound of your trashcan lid flying open and then falling over, but the sound of a good rain storm can just be so comforting and cozy.

I was out driving in it today. I'm pretty comfortable driving in rain. Growing up in Houston, it rained all the time. You got used to it, or you stayed home. I was pretty pleased to see that the rain had let up by the time I got out of the building after my appointment, only to find out on the radio that the area was under a tornado warning. Nice. Not only that, but a severe thunderstorm was on its way in 15 minutes - it would take me about that much time to get home.

Lo and behold, I found myself at the intersection near my neighborhood right around that time. (Yay!) The sky all around me was darkening, though. Big, black clouds were rolling in fast, but just tiny drops were hitting the windshield. Just as quickly as I thought that, the sky opened up and sheets of water began cascading down. As that happened, the darkness all around me, turned white. It was the strangest thing...very eerie. I can only surmise that there was so much rain coming down at once that it "clouded" the visibility of the dark clouds above, making it seem lighter. I've never seen that happen before; it was very interesting.

When the light changed, and I drove home with the wipers swishing furiously, the rain was coming down so hard, I could barely see. All I could think was, "So, this is how flash floods happen." It is scary how fast and hard that rain was coming down. No sooner did I get to the comfort of my driveway, and it let up. It went back to the comforting, cozy sound that I like to take a nap to. The kind of rain that doesn't pound my flowers down to the ground, but gives them what they need to bloom over the next couple of weeks. (April showers...May flowers. Ah, yes!)

I do kinda miss the rain storms in Houston. At least there, it could rain all day long and all night long, and it was just rain. Here, the moment it starts raining, we are under a tornado watch. So, the nice, relaxing sound of the rain does come with a price...underlying anxiety and stress...and having to have the tv or radio on for news updates on the weather. Not so relaxing. So...maybe I will just go buy one of those rain cd's, because we're not moving anytime soon.