Tuesday, August 03, 2021

On Rain

 One of the very different things about New Home is that we get rain throughout the year.

This was not so in Old Home, where the climate was what is called "Mediterranean" (sadly, without the historic sites of Greece and Italy of course) and the rain all comes (almost reliably) between the end of October and the beginning of April (occasionally it runs to May).  Inevitably there is a cooling in September, followed by one more round of heat, then the rains comes.  If your garden is not planted by the first week of November things get too muddy and too wet pretty rapidly.

Here, we can get rain literally any time of the year.

Rain here is also different.  In Old Home, rain comes down in a steady sheet, sometimes for the day (or days).  In New Home, it dumps, heavily and randomly and for durations.  Seldom have we had a day where it rained from morning to night; often have we had a day in which it rains six times.

It has its benefits, of course.  Since moving here, one of my great "contests" is to see how little I can manage to have to water my lawn in summer (I know:  it is a lame game.  This is my life.).  There have been years where I have not had to turn on the water during the summer; there have also been summers where I did nothing but water and watch my bill go up.

(For those that wonder, we live in one of the dreaded Home Owner's Associations.  While ours is fairly quiescent, they do have expectations of outer appearances, and dead lawns are not one of them.  I try not to attract attention).

One of the unanticipated things about rain in hot seasons is how it cool things down - for a time - and then the heat cranks right back up.  This was a change for me when we first arrived: when it rained, it was supposed to be cold and stay cold for the duration.   Imagine my surprise when, two hours after rain, it is as stupidly hot as it was before.

A Cruel Joke, I cry out.  

Shut up and enjoy your water, the clouds cry back.

Which do I prefer?  I am not sure I have an opinion.  The variation, to be honest, is nice.  And having access to water (or given the year, potential access to water) all year is a great boon.  But there is something about a steady sheet of water coming down, being watched from inside in a chair with a book and warm mug of hot drink, that is not replicated by the sounds of downpours.

 

6 comments:

  1. Our rains are typically from March until May and again in late fall, November until December when it gets cold enough to turn into crystals. But as global warming takes hold, it has been all over the map.

    I once looked at a house in a HOA and then looked at the list of covenants and said no thanks. The only grass I have ever watered in my life is that I have recently seeded just to give it a start. After that, I let it turn crispy brown and enjoy my cold beverage in my air conditioned home while those that water slave away with their mowers.

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    1. Ed, the CCRS (Codes, Covenants, and Restrictions) are a drag. It seems to be very geographically based; in Old Home there were almost now HOAs, they are everywhere here in New Home. They are, as I indicated, of varying degrees of enforcement intensity - but there are things I could never get away with (chickens, for example. For the two years we had the quail I had to keep them in the garage lest the HOA police find them).

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  2. When we lived in Houston (yewston is a beg beg setty) routinely it would rain, and then steam would come up off the pavement. The rain drops were huge and warm like bath water. It was pretty humid and ugly-hot after that. In Lubbock, when it rained, the temp would drop 30-40 degrees, feel like ice water, and be pleasant for quite a while afterwards. Very refreshing when you crawled out of the cellar ('fraidy hole). Just the matter of 3000 feet of altitude change, nearness to the gulf (guff) and possibly to heaven or the other place....

    Texas pronunciation guide in parenthesis.

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    1. STxAR, I grew up in about 15-20% humidity, so anything South of, say Nevada and East of Colorado is unpleasant at best in the Summer. I do not enjoy humidity, not in the least.

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  3. Free sauna time. ;-)

    When we first got to NC back in late '94, there was a place we really liked, but it was in an HOA and we decided no (with the realtor's recommendation). Not sorry.

    This year has been a wet one for Louisiana so far. I think to help the trees recover from last year.
    You all be safe and God bless, TB.

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    1. Linda, that was a good call. Even the most benign - and I would say our is benign - is a potential issue waiting to happen.

      Yes, the rain has done a lot here after the Winter we had as well. Unfortunately only for the ones that made it; a lot of them did not make out the Spring.

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