Rain Ramblin's

When I was a little girl in Mesquite, Texas the rain was a special treat.  We would get sticks and cardboard and make sailboats and sail them along the curb in the run off water, running along beside them until they disappeared into the storm drain if we didn’t catch them in time.  One particularly heavy rainstorm I remember the street was so flooded and deep that we floated to the end of the block on an old air mattress.  I’m told that my older brother Garry rescued me on one such occasion when I was around 3 just as I was being sucked toward the storm drain. 

We are all struggling in this heat.  Praying for rain. And no relief in sight.   I have never liked summer.  Whenever someone talks about going to the lake or a vacation to the beach I think, not me…give me snow and cold and mountains anytime.   I have never really been a hot weather person.   Throw in some humidity  with the heat and I get downright cranky.  The heat takes the bubble out of my personality, the spring out of my step.   All I want to do is lie around and stay cool. It zaps my energy. 

Last week a rare rain happened in Muskogee and I stood outside in it until I was soaked to the skin. It was wonderful.  After days and days and days of 100+temperatures, the natural sprinkler was a welcome change.  Last week in the Checotah paper there was a warning about snakes that are coming up into people’s yards in search of water.  Several people had been bitten.  One lady when she reached down to get her dog’s water bowl and a snake was under it.

I was grateful at first that I didn’t have to pay to have my yard mowed the last couple of weeks but now the sight of the dead brown grass is a little depressing.  I wish it would rain..and rain…and rain…and rain. When I get home from work my first task is to Hydrate the Husky as I call it.  I empty out the kiddie pool and Shelbys’ water dish and fill it with cold, fresh water. Then I spray the hose up into the air and stand with Shelby as the water falls back on us.  When I poured the water out yesterday, it was super hot.  Not warm, actually hot.   

The heat is literally driving people crazy.  In the last few days I have seen more tempers flare, people snap at others for no reason, and today a near fist fight at the Checotah post office over someone taking too long to fill out a form.   Things that normally don’t bother me, like a co-worker who talks non-stop and always has a bigger, better experience , have about sent me over the edge the last couple of weeks.  I have had to bite my tongue to keep from saying “shut up, I don’t care” several times.  That is definitely not the norm for me.  So I am blaming it all on the heat.

I am grateful and blessed to have a job that is indoors.  I feel bad for our field nurses and staff that have to be out driving from home to home to see patients in this heat.   Several people I know have cars who air conditioners have just given up and they are having to wait several days for repairs because of the back up at shops due to the heat.

My air conditioner is working but my house is much warmer than usual.  Yesterday I found my Yorkie Quincy wedged in behind the toilet,up against the cool porcelain.  And my house is air conditioned.  Its times like these I’m glad I’m on the bill averaging plan.  I’d hate to see the bill otherwise because it has run non-stop for weeks now.

Some people were “offended” because the governor suggested we “pray for rain”.  I cannot imagine why that is offensive.  Whether you believe in God or not the fact of the matter is WE NEED RAIN. I saw a sign on a car wash place that said “wash your car, we need rain”.   I washed mine.  Didn’t work.  I’m back to praying for rain. 

There’s a contemporary Christian song I’ve been humming.  Its about God raining down His Spirit but the words fit the current situation now as I long for and pray for rain.

Let some drops fall
I need a touch Lord
I need it all
Rain on me, rain on me, rain on me
Rain on me, rain on me, rain on me
shower blessings in this house
let it rain on me

Stay cool.  L