Terrorized by rainy days

I like rain. I think this comes from having spent my formative years in the Northwest. I like chilly grey days that don't make you feel like a disappointment for not being outside. I like wet weather plants, I like wet weather music (the Shins, Postal Service, Death cab for cutey), I have a raincoat I like to wear, and when my senior year at WWU we had a record 58 days of solid rain, I didn't notice. I like rain.

People here, don't like rain. They groan if it rains everyday for a week, even though this tends to mean there are sunny parts of the days. People tell me all the time that they get as much rain here as in Seattle (which is some piddly half as much as we get in Juneau), like that would make it more ok to gripe about rain. Seattle doesn't gripe about it- get over it!

But I am starting to get it. Here the rain doesn't lurk in misty clouds, it arrives on a thundercloud with a vicious sense of urgency. The rain comes pelting down in sheets that spray off rooftops, clog sewer drains in moments and drenches any human being unfortunate enough to still be waiting on the bus to take them home (or worse, to work). This kind of rain, rain coasts don't do. Neither do umbrellas. Just the sense that this rain might come is enough to trap you indoors (as if the heat hadn't already).

Matt and I used to hope for rain, because rain makes things cool down. Much like the lie that the weather would cool down at night, this just isn't true. The rain often makes the heat worse with its sweltering humidity. This rank moist heat rends even sweat useless. I miss the chilly winds driving mounds of mist, stealing the warmth from your bones. Bring back the winter weather! I am so over summer!