I THINK I’m going to start carrying a tape recorder again.
No, I’m not planning a political expose — not at the moment, anyway. I’m not expecting to bootleg Rolling Stones concerts or preserve the sounds of turnpike construction for posterity.
I just want a record of my fellow Emporians complaining about the weather. One that I can play back later.
When the temperature hits 100 degrees for the 23rd day in a row, we can all listen to January’s cry of “This snow is making me nuts! I can’t wait for summer!”
When Kansas winds are ripping up shingles and carrying away carelessly handled papers, we can flash back to August’s lament of “I can’t believe this dead air and humidity. I’d kill for a breeze!”
And of course, when crops are wilting and soil is hardening, we can replay our favorite springtime chant: “When is it going to quit raining, already?”
I’ve been hearing that last one a lot lately. I can’t say I’m surprised, either. Not when the weather report looks like someone ran it through a Xerox machine: Thunderstorm, followed by thunderstorm, followed by ...
Well, you get the idea.
I’ll admit, any kind of weather can get tedious when it goes on for this long. And this one has been going on for a while. Basements are flooding, front lawns are turning into moats and anyone with an outside job is looking at the skies with a certain amount of anxiety. All we’re missing is for an old man to pull his boat up at Sixth and Commercial and start loading the animals in, two by two.
So yes, it’s frustrating. And endless. And soggy.
But it’s still rain. And I’ve never been able to bring myself to hate rain.
Hail, yes. Hail is evil, not to mention expensive. Tornadoes you can keep. And egg-frying heat lost its charm for me after my first weekend here with no air conditioning.
But rain is different. Maybe it’s because I’m part English, but I’ve always seen something magical in rain.
To start with, it’s a mood intensifier. Any emotion you’re feeling gets just a little stronger — and maybe a little more satisfying — with a rainstorm behind it. You can be sad in the sunshine, but it takes rain to make the blues. A pleasant mood can become almost wistful. Even temper tantrums blow off that much more steam with some thunder to play percussion.
It may also be the best memory-generator of any weather I’ve seen. Most of my rain memories go back to Max, our late bearded collie. Thunder terrified him and so he would run to anywhere he’d felt comfortable before — the countertop where we brushed him, say, or the van where he rode shotgun. I spent a lot of rainy days reading to Max, just letting him hear a reassuring voice and start to calm down again.
And of course, rain can bring a few surprises. When I worked at a Colorado bookstore, two things were guaranteed to drive away customers: rain and the annual downtown bicycle race. At least, until the year when it rained DURING the annual bike race. As the rain came pouring down, the racing fans came pouring in, desperate for somewhere dry to wait until the weather cleared. We had our best business day in weeks, all because of folks who had just been standing around on the sidewalk until the storm started.
So bring on the rain. Come August, we’re going to wish we had it anyway. Why not start now?
Call it a rainy-day savings.
Scott Rochat’s e-mail address is rochat@emporiagazette.com.
JFish (anonymous) says...
When we first moved to Kansas, I was amazed at all the griping about the weather. And when the weather was beautiful, then people would say things like, "Yeah, but wait, it'll turn."
It's a Kansas pastime, griping about the weather. Only took a couple of years for me to get into the swing, and now you'd never know me from a native Kansan, considering the way I gripe about the weather.
May 9, 2007 at 11:46 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Flips (anonymous) says...
Our Daughter's bantam hen built her nest & is setting on eggs in their BOAT--does this chick know something the rest of us don't???????
May 9, 2007 at 12:21 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )