The 3-Day Squall

I started this blog a few years back during a record breaking rainy season. While everyone thinks of Seattle as the rainy city, in actuality, it's mostly gray not always wet. We only get about 35 inches a year, less than New York City. But in that rainy period when we shattered all rainfall records, it rained for at least 30 days straight. Everything was soggy. I had two sets of rain gear allowing time for one to dry out before I wore it again.

Today the weather forecasters are warning of three days of heavy rainfall and gusty winds. They caution those in valleys to watch for flash floods and they predict heavy snowfall in the mountains. By Sunday, the squall is predicted to pass and we will be given a reprieve, a period of drying out. In the past, I remember counting days of rain and it was always a pattern of three. Three days of rain followed by three days of no rain.

I can hold on for three days, though now, as a dog walker and no longer a teacher protected by the four walls and solid roof of a classroom, it's time to pull out the two rotations of rain gear again. And the dog may finally have to get used to his red raincoat.

I have a love/hate relationship with rain. In the summer months, when we experience a dry spell (we actually do!), I long for rain. If rain isn't falling steadily by November, I worry we will have a drought, a wimpy snow pack determining our water restrictions the following summer. But when it does rain, like today, I find myself waiting for it to end. I will enjoy one good day of rain, but by tomorrow afternoon, I'll be upset that my shoes are soggy, my wood floors muddy, and my hair unmanageably curly from the constant soaking.

Of course, on Sunday, when the sun comes out as it is forecast, I will be thankful for all this rain. It's a rinse cycle making the air that much cleaner, washing away the scummy dirt from the streets, and somehow making the skies that much more blue. I've always joked with out-of-towners that my toes are webbed. Who knows, after rainstorms like this, it just may come true.