Rain on Me

Rain! A low rumble of thunder at about 9:30 this evening, then something louder, then buckets of rain, completed with thunder and lightning, the likes of which we haven't seen since early June at least. Since then, it's slacked off, but they say more will come. We need a week's worth or more.

I wouldn't want to live in a desert, even the kind of irrigated deserts we have in the United States, because I'd miss the rain. The overture of gray clouds and distant thunder, the moment the first drops come -- and you either see it, or feel it, or both -- all the sounds the rainfall makes as it comes down hard, the immediate aftermath when the earth smells like rain and the rivulets are on their way (eventually) to the ocean.

When it does happen in the desert, I suppose rain's quite a thrill, but I'd rather have it more regularly. Occasionally people who hear about my Texas upbringing ask me about living in the desert, which I never have. I laugh at the idea and think of the enormous, violent spring storms in South Texas.