Rain, Rain, Beautiful Rain!

Renoir's "The Umbrellas"

It rained last night! Here - in Palm Harbor! I spent another day, yesterday, watching the rain clouds move north, south, east and west of us, and NOTHING here. Nothing. My soul was parched for water from the sky. And so is my grapefruit tree, which is suffering more noticeably that I. Last night, around 12:30 am, I was reading in bed when, after plenty of rumblings from the sky, it started to pour. Here! On my house, and trees and flowers. I just laid there and listened for a half hour or so until I fell asleep. Layla the dog opted to hide under the bed.

This morning, the pond is full, my pool is an inch and a half deeper, my garden looks happy and I am happy. Just as, in Michigan, when I could barely get out of bed after it drizzled for the 5th day in a row, I am affected in Florida by a 6 month of drought. I get to the point where the waiting interferes with my ability to be the least bit productive.

It rained again today! I left my car in the driveway after church this morning with the passenger window down a few inches. I remembered when I heard the Mister go out and open the door later and say "You'd better bring a towel with you." Ooops. Not much water - just enough to get the passenger seat nice and clean.

We were at Hooters having dinner several summers ago when the sky opened up and torrents of rain blasted out of the sky like Noah's flood. Someone had left the convertible top on their mustang down, and every few minutes an employee would announce, will the person with the white Mustang..yatta yatta... It kept pouring. They kept announcing. Finally after about 45 minutes a guy at the bar realized that it was his convertible - he forgot which car he drove to Hooters. The thing had about 4 inches of water in it.

Before I wander off to another subject, here's a poem about rain. Not the Florida summer rain, but a northern 5th day of a cold drizzle type rain:

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Rain Dance

I watch from the train
On this cold grey day
Dressed in woolen plaid
Cheek pressed against the window
Peering through rivulets
At dark umbrellas
Twirling gracefully past
Like ballerinas in mourning

Hiding somber faces
Of those who come and go
In quiet discontent
Wishing for warmth, I think
And sun
And better things to do than
Pirouette though puddles

By Muse-Swings 1994

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I forgot that all the Dad's would be given an ice cold bottle of Root Beer (for Father's Day) on their way into church this morning. I looked down from the loft (where I was managing the lighting for the service) and it looked like the guys were drinking beer down there. Some of the kids too. I didn't think much of that, after all I AM Polish.

I took several empties home with me for my bottle tree! Anyone reading this who sees me on a regular basis: I am still working on my bottle tree (see picture down on the right side of this blog) If you have any empty wine bottles- colored glass is especially preferred - or bottles smaller than wine bottles, please bag 'em up and drop them off next time you see me. I have plenty of green, brown and clear glass, so drink some Blue Nun or something. Thanks in advance. I'm not getting much turnover on my own wine collection, so I might just start handing out bottles and collecting the empties. I'll put an updated Bottle Tree picture on my post in a day or two so you can see how it's coming along.

The Mister is enjoying his Father's day watching the Michigan 500 (that's a stock car race) mostly through his eye-lids. He keeps dozing off. Jason and I took him out for breakfast. I found a looooovely card for him yesterday. I had to push a lady out of the way so I could get one. She was looking at every card! It's for a guy. You just grab one. Any one.

Actually I spent a little time looking through them myself. Got him some chocolate covered cashews too. Big Spender, I am. So I'm not working, okay? For an extra special time we watched a couple of episodes of Burn Notice that we taped earlier. I love that show. New season starts 7/10. Check it out.

I'll go sit next to the Mister for a while now. He likes that. I'll catch you later.