7/11/07 Rain

It hasn’t rained here in weeks. Not significantly. We’ve been in a horrible drought for more than a month. Just ask my tomato plants, who are wilted and droopy no matter how much water I pour over them. Everything in my garden is droopy. My rain barrels have been empty for the past few weeks. My yard is brown. We have a deficit of more than 12 inches. The irony that Texas and Arkansas are flooding right now does not escape me. I need it to rain here. So I wait. And wait. There is no rain. The good news is that I was able to waterproof my deck during all this dry weather. The sealer suggests 24-48 hours with no rain so that the sealant can soak in and dry on the wood. I sealed my deck Sunday afternoon, so I was not surprised to hear the sound while sitting on my screened in porch tonight.

Drip. Drip.

I didn’t even hear it coming before that. There was no thunder, no heat lightening like all the days previously. All show, but no rain. But tonight, there were exactly 2 drops of rain to signal the beginning, and then the deluge started. The sealant had roughly 33 hours to dry. I hope that’s enough. The rain comes down in sheets. The sound of it hitting the roof is so loud that Tony and I have to yell to each other to be heard. Tony goes in, but I stand on the porch, listening to the sound. Rain smells so good. I watch the water drip off of the tomato plants. I imagine it rushing into the rain barrels. And I laugh. Finally, the wait is over. And if any of my neighbors happen to look out their windows, they would see me, laughing and yelling and dancing in circles, celebrating the rain.