Rain

Finally, some rain. A good rain. Heavy, soaking, earth-quenching rain. Man, have we needed this. Much of the southeast has been baking in a dry oven for the last few months, and in many places literally burning to the ground. The wildfires in northeast Florida and southeast Georgia have been burning for weeks, with thousands of acres of pine forests and wetlands and swamp smoldering and thickening the sky with columns of pungent smoke, the landscape now reduced to ashes.

The big fire is burning to the northwest of here. When the wind is from the east and the smoke is blown toward the western horizon, it actually produces a pleasant visual experience. As the sun goes down you can almost look directly at it, a perfectly circular orange ball clearly defined in the soot-darkened sky. It creates a hazy, somnolent sunset and when viewed through a thicket of palm trees evokes a languid tropical attitude.

But the rain is here today. Thank you Heavenly Spirit of the Universe for this rain. I'm saying all this but the reality is I wish the rain had started forty five minutes later. It came yesterday afternoon while I was entertaining clients on the golf course. It hasn't rained in three months and the day I have three influential managers from a very important client out for a round of golf, it has to start raining on the fifteenth hole. It couldn't have waited forty five minutes. It wasn't really a big deal, but if I'd have been drawing it up it would have held off until we finished.

I woke up this morning and I could hear it coming down. I love that. I rolled over and looked at the clock and it was blinking 12:00. The power went out sometime during the night. My blinds were open and I looked out the window but the sky was gray and I couldn't tell what time it might be. It was still kind of dark so I assumed it was early, maybe 6:30, rolled over and went back to sleep. I love to sleep when it rains. I hope it rains all day so I can take a nap listening to it this afternoon.

I can practically hear the plants sighing in thanks. The rain is supposed to move out later today, and tomorrow will be sunny and fresh. Maybe some of the smaller fires will be extinguished and the bigger fires will be brought under control. We can hope.

And with the rain I have no excuse not to work on chapter eight. Peace and umbrellas...