Rain

Remember that old eighties song? - I'm not sure what it was called but it goes something like this:

"I miss the rains out in Aaaaaaafricaaaa!"

I'm in Africa! I miss the rains out in Florida! - Actually I'm in North Africa. Tripoli is smooshed between the Mediterranean Sea and the Sahara Desert. We don't get much rainfall here - mostly it rains in the winter months. This winter everyone complained about the cold weather, but I don't really think there was a whole lot of rain. Everything seems dry and this spring there doesn't seem to be as many wildflowers as there were in previous years.

I like rain. I like the sound, the smell, and the feel of it. I love walking in the rain. In fact, I take every opportunity to walk in the rain.

I used to have a cassette tape of rain and I liked to play it in the afternoons. I would put the tape on and climb into bed and snuggle up with one of my kids and listen to the rain tape. I played it so many times that it finally stopped working. I really miss that tape.

Once while browsing the internet I found a website with sounds that could be downloaded and one of them was the sound of a rainstorm. The file was over 15 megabytes but I decided to go for it with my slow dial-up anyway. It took forever to download! But I finally got it.

With anticipation, I jumped into the shower, then put on my pajamas, and climbed into bed to listen. Here I was, all snuggled up and happy. The sound of rain! - Pitter-patter and distant thunder! Then it started to rain a little harder! And out of nowhere came a voice!

"It's really coming down now."

It was the voice of an old man! Kind of gravely and low. Every minute or so he would make some stupid comment about the rain! He ruined the whole storm! It was like going to a movie and having the guy in front of you making comments the whole time. Ruined! The whole storm was ruined!

Oh . . . I miss the rains out in Flooooridaaaaa!