Can a person get tired of perpetually sunny weather? Perhaps those readers from the East coast would laugh at my statement, but the answer is, yes. At least, I do. When summer starts here, usually around the Fourth of July, we have sunny days all the way into November. Day after day. That’s six months of “same old, same old.”
Usually, the temperature hovers in the eighties, which is too hot for me. I melt like Oz’s Wicked Witch in anything above eighty-two degrees. And don’t get me started on humidity, which, thankfully, we only get on occasion. Add that to opening the curtains day after day and saying, “No clouds, again,” and it reminds me that I enjoy rainy days.
I love the fat, thick, gray, nimbus clouds that cover up the normally blue sky, and bring with them cooler temperatures. As a child, my sister and I would stretch out in the grass and try to make shapes out of those clouds. Until the rain came, of course. I wonder if kids still do that? Try it, sometime, especially with your own children. It’s a blast to witness their imaginations at work.
Besides cooking, my favorite thing to do when it’s cloudy is to go for a walk. I try to beat the rain, but if it falls, out comes my sassy, pink umbrella, because I can’t just walk in the rain unprotected. If I do, I hear my mother’s voice, admonishing me that “I’ll catch my death of cold” if I get wet. Besides, I hate raindrops on my glasses.
If it’s raining too hard to go for a walk, my next activity is to turn on my gas fireplace (yes, I can flip a switch for it), make a cup of tea, and write by the fire, usually with my four-year-old, male Sheltie at my feet. Sometimes I pause and watch the rain running down the window pane, or I look at the way the flames flicker in the fireplace. It’s a cozy and creative time.
Now, the rain has moved on. The clouds are breaking up, and there is more blue sky between them. The air has been cleansed, the spring flowers have been fortified. The breeze is swift; those clouds will be gone before too long, bringing once again the sunshine for which southern California is noted.
For all I know, this could be the last rain we have until the summer monsoons in August, which are a whole, other type of rain, bringing with them a stickiness reminiscent of a summer spent in Huntsville, Alabama. But, for now, I’ll enjoy these gray, puffy clouds whisking along on a California breeze. And tonight, I’ll search my weather apps for the next possibility of precipitation, living my life between the raindrops.
What’s your favorite weather? Drop me a line (or two), and tell me your favorite weather, and why. I'd love to hear the reasons.