Rain Rain Don't Go Away

Just the second day of NaBloPoMo and the best I can come up with is the weather...
Much as I love those long summer days when we've got nothing better to do than be outside, I am happiest when it is rainy out. Fall is a funny kind of season here on the North Coast. When the Autumnal Equinox rolls around, we know that the best days of summer are still ahead of us; the mornings are very chilly by the middle of October, the skies are a pristine blue every single day and by afternoon it's as warm as it will get all year long (that's somewhere in the mid 70s at the coast, 10-20 degrees warmer a few miles inland). Come Halloween John is sick and tired of hearing me complain about how it never stinkin' rains around here. And it's true! Until we get that first, lovely, delightfully wet storm. The very one that blew in yesterday.

Forced indoors, the kids are discovering all these toys they haven't played with in a long time. They are playing together and playing alone and I haven't had to entertain anyone or break up any fights. I'm getting some cleaning done. OK, I'd be doing that anyway because we are hosting a party for Hannah's soccer team over here on Sunday, but it's so much easier to get things done when I'm feeling cheerful. It will wear off some after a while; I'll get sick of all the mud tracked through my kitchen (and my car!), sick of the clutter of raincoats and boots, the kids will get tired of their toys (but, hey, Christmas is smack-dab in the middle of our rainy season), I'll get tired of breaking up fights, I'll yearn for the days when I can send them outside and make them stay there all day long. Today though, standing on the back porch just watching--the rain makes everything much better. (Also, Lorrie Moore has a short story in the New Yorker that came today.)