Land of Gloom & Rain

For about an hour this morning, I thought we were finally over our Seattle-like weather. It's been raining everyday since last weekend, but the sun came up with authority today, and even started to burn off the gloom. Alas, it's clouding up again. Sigh.

Why is my mood so predicated on the presence or absence of sunshine? We went to Olympia, Washington right after we moved here, in late 2005. We spent Christmas and New Year's with my brother's family, had a great time with them and our kids and Mom. And it rained for the whole 17 days we were there. By the time our visit was over, I was ready to check into a mental health facility for shock treatments.

I don't know how brother's family and my kids live in such an environment. I think I would simply perish if I had to endure that much rain. My brother kept telling us that it was abnormal for it to rain like that. He also had an inch of moss on his concrete patio, so I didn't believe him for a minute. His whole neighborhood looked like a scene out of Lord of the Rings, dark and dripping with green things growing, always growing. Ads on the radio promoted companies that would come out and de-algae your home's roof. Their septic tank threatened to flood out (they had an alarm that sounded when it got too full of liquid, very cool, but very telling). But it is very green in Rain-Land, I'll give you that.

Here in Tennessee last year, we had a remarkable period of almost no rain, from May until December. We were rationing water, going to town to do the laundry, practicing judicious flushing, and taking short showers every other day, with sponge-bathing in between. The pond shrank to less than half it's normal size and the fish were complaining. Not out loud of course, but I could tell they were mightily annoyed by the cramped quarters. I was marginally worried about the lack of precipitation, but I have to say that my mental state was pretty terrific.

I keep telling myself that at least it's not snow. I got an email from a friend who lives in New York up by the Canadian border, and yes, it's still snowing there. In April.

But another rainy day means more housework today and a soporific attitude. I keep thinking if we could just get some sun action, I might feel a bit more energetic.