Rain…
It’s hard to explain to anyone who doesn’t live here in Rain-ville. Here, with the incessant drizzle-wet depressive damp that permeates the air with its near-constant moisture tumble.
Because the common perception of the Pacific Northwest is: IT RAINS HERE.
So when I say, “I miss the rain…” people’s immediate response is to say “But it rains there all the time!”
And that’s true.
Where I live, it rains all the time.
But it doesn’t rain.
It mists, but it’s as though the air is sweating. It’s sticky and uncomfortable and gives one a mad desire to cleanse. To shower off the atmospheric unpleasantness. To get inside, to get dry, to warm up, to hide.
It ‘showers’ but in a ho-hum, water-heater-needs-replacing and pump-pressure-is-slack-again kind of way.
The water comes down out of the sky, yes… Occasionally it even does so with a fit of spiteful temper. The drops fall ice-needle quick against windshields, as though the gods are throwing tantrums and their spittle is spewing down from the heavens.
So yes: It rains here.
Coldly.
Constantly.
It rains.
But it doesn’t rain.
It doesn’t come pouring, sudden sheets billowing down over clay field beds like soaked linens. It isn’t preceded by heaviness weighting the air. It does not portend. The ‘during’ is not, in any way, delightful. When it ends, things are no different than when it began.
There is no thunderous call for reformation of weather from on-high, no roiling black sky.
The water falls, but when it hits the ground it goes straight through.
It does not bounce.
It does not dance.
There is no joy in the rain I experience every day.
So when I — midwest-raised and oft, in childhood, deluge-delighted — say, “I miss the rain,” what I mean is: I miss the full personality, the overwhelming plain-and-simple fulfillment, the momentary cleansing wreak of havoc, yes… Yes, there is that…
But there is also the gentle lightness. The smiling kiss laid on one’s face from the sky. The simplicity, the delight.
Those things…
I miss those things.
But most of all, I think, I miss the quiet unassuming joy of the rains I used to know.
And then one rainy day I heard this…
…and instead of missing the rain, I found myself reminiscing.
With a smile.
for the Musically Ranting April theme: Music Memories
(this might not be quite what the meme host was expecting to come from her prompt, but this piece of Brian Crain’s music definitely leads me to reminiscing about rain)
&
for the April A-to-Z Blogging Challenge: letters BC
This year, my theme for the A-to-Z Challenge is Music as Muse.
I will be posting (with alphabetically progressive titles) on whatever topics strike my fancy within that (admittedly loose) framework. I will also, obviously, be combining letters where appropriate. 🙂
If you are a regular reader, you probably know what to expect.
If you are new here, visiting from the A-to-Z Challenge, here are some other ‘ABC’ posts that might give you an idea of what kinds of posts you are likely to find in this space should you choose, in future, to return:
A is for A-Hole
B is for Bookworm
~and~
C is for Cum-munication
As though the air is sweating… which sounds like high humidity, and is weather I just can’t handle. It makes me feel light-headed, nauseous, not well. But, your memory made me think of those days back in my youth, walking in the rain on a hot summers day, the dry heat kind. And then enjoying the thunderstorm, the momentary coolness of the air, and the smell of the rain on the hot streets. I don’t have that anymore. Where I am now, the rain is always cold… so I tend not to go out in it 😉
~ Marie xox
Oddly, it’s not humid where I live. I think that’s because it never gets warm enough to be humid. It’s just WET, 24/7/365.
I’m not a fan of humidity in hot places; I much prefer the dry heat of the desert. Unfortunately, I also prefer living by the ocean. There are no oceans in the desert — you can’t have both!
I’m listening to your lovely music while I write this. We have good heavy rain here in Wollongong. We are on the edge of a sub tropical rainforest. This year is a particularly wet one. Something to do with El Niño. The autumn weather in between has been sunny and warm – the best time if the year.
That sounds lovely.
When I was there, I remember the temps being quite mild but there was definitely a bit of rain. It had a refreshing feel to it. 🙂
I’m also enjoying the lovely violin on that clip as I write this. El Niño had something to do with the rains and cold weather we had here early this year. It is now the hot season and we get really thundery storms in the afternoons (I love the rain so I’m not complaining!), but without the cold. It’s about 38 °C in the daytime, and we’re getting highs of 31°C even at 2-3am in the morning. Which is uncharacteristically warm even for a country on the equator.
*Sending you some thoughts of rainstorms and dancing bouncing raindrops*
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Yrs, the violin adds _just_ that extra *something*, doesn’t it?
Where I grew up, we had a full four seasons. Cold winters, hot summers, with spring and fall bringing truly transitional weather. There was a seasonal time for continual rain (spring), and when it rained in summer it was an EVENT. But where I live now, it’s just cool/cold all the time (last summer it stayed mostly in the 60s, for example, and we only had 2 days with temps above 80°F) and the rain is an everyday constant… Bluh. *laugh*
It took a long time for the way it rains here to get to me, but it has. It’s no wonder so many people in this area suffer from depression! And there’s no escaping it with COVID travel restrictions being what they are.
So your current uncharacteristic warmth sounds lovely. If it’s interspersed with proper rainstorms, that’s even lovelier!
We definitely have proper rain here, lashing down in sheets. But we also get your kind of drizzly mist stuff and I hate that too. The damp permeates. I’m just hoping for a good summer,
Julie recently posted…Blogging A-Z Challenge 2021 – Cancer
My fingers (and knees and toes!) are crossed for a proper summer this year. I need warmth and sunshine!
Lovely post about the different kind of rain going on at your place. Your great description makes me feel like I need to take my asthma inhaler. I have often described your kind a rain as someone spitting in my face because it feels insulting and annoying, not pleasurable like the kind of soak from above you seem to miss. Hugs, Windy
Yes! The spitting — *laugh* — I totally get that!
I live in Southern Oregon, and hear all the time, “You must love the rain.” No, I don’t really, which is fine, because we don’t get a lot of rain. We have a Mediterranean climate. My daughter, on the other hand, is mildewing in Portland.
Mildewing – *laugh* – yes, that’s me! I live north of Seattle. 🙂
I loved the song! I’m a sucker for piano and the violin just adds that je ne sais quoi
It’s a lovely complementary sound combination, isn’t it?
His compositions are quite simple, really, but I find his music soothing.
Apparently I fat fingered the comment and it posted before I was done. Haha.
I get that feeling you are talking about as we get the high humidity and always feels wet the minute you step outside. It’s just gross, but we do get some amazing thunderstorms.
Yes, I think the “sweating” gives people the idea that it’s humid… It’s not though. (Not in a typical way, anyway.) It’s just NEVER DRY. But the ‘sweat’ is more like a cold sweat. Like shaking hands with someone who’s hands are clammy, except it’s not just leaving that cold sweat on your hands… It’s like a whole-body cold-sweat clammy handshake. If that makes sense. *laugh*
I abhor humidity. My brother lives in Florida. I visited him a few years back and thought I was going to DIE. Ugh! *laugh*
When I left, I was like, “I love you. nd I am NEVER coming to see you again.”
Hahaha.. I love you but no. That’s how I feel about visiting family in Alaska. That’s definitely an “ewwwww” kind of sweaty feeling.
When we visit Portland, this is exactly right. It drizzles and drips and fogs.
The desert has either no rain or a deluge usually so I definitely don’t like the PNW type.
When I moved here, I expected to only stay for a short time — maybe a year or two — and then move on.
But then I met my husband.
And, well…
Yeah. *laugh*
We’re both ready to get out of this place, but COVID (and the loss of income it’s caused, and the related travel restrictions) has made moving to a nicer climate something we have to push out a little bit further…
And this right here is what I have always loved about your writing…the way you describe things in a color all your own. It’s beautiful. Soul-movingly beautiful…like a good rain storm, I imagine.
Thank you. ❤
I know about that overly moist, sweaty air – we get it in Wales alot. But it also has a tendency to really pour too. What ever- it hardly ever is dry in the air. Thou i say that but, we have had it dry for a few days now and I am enjoying that.
Listening to the music u suggest as I write this – just wonderful – i am fan now! TY for introducing me…
May x
Yes, I think the weather in the west part of Washington state is very similar to weather in the British isles.
I’m glad you like the music — he has some lovely piano and violin compositions.
I really enjoyed the music you chose, not something I’d have found on my own, but it was uplifting and soothing at the same time.
In the UK we have a lot of wet weather, and in summer the heavy overcast, wring out the air menace of rain, where you end up wishing for the storm already so everyone can feel better. But it does at least break in a big old storm – I guess you’re in the neck of the woods where Stephanie Meyer set her vampire novels, because of the misty, dull climate. I cant quite get my head around what it would feel like to live in such a different climate than the one I was brought up with, as you describe happened to you, I’ve lived in the same county my whole life.
Really enjoyed this post and the music you signposted.
Yes, re: Twilight — that’s exactly right.
It’s hard for people to understand unless/until they’ve been here.
Glad you enjoyed the music. 🙂