Rain, rain, rain

It has to be some kind of miracle, or if you don’t believe in miracles, it’s definitely something sent from heaven above, but this morning it rained every single one of the ninety miles that make up my commute. I am not kidding you; a band of heavy rain followed me down the highway for about 90 miles. It rained all day yesterday too, and so today’s downpour was quite a surprise. You see, unlike less fortunate places in the world, in Georgia the rain usually stops after about 24 hours. But not today. It seemed unfair somehow; I had only returned from the rainiest country in the world on Saturday, and I’m rewarded with 48 hours of rain.

But this morning, as I was cussing the rain, the poor condition of the roads, and semis going over 80 miles per hours spraying water everywhere, I was grateful for several things. First, husband-dear. As a married woman, I realize you should always be grateful for your spouse, and yadah-yadah-yadah, but this morning, I was truly thankful for my husband’s apparent psychic powers. You see, as opposed to me, he actually pays attention to the state of my car, and had noticed right before I left that I had just hit the 60 000 mile mark, and was in desperate, and I mean, dire, need of new tires. One of my tires actually turned out to be almost completely bald, although, and this is between you and me, that was probably the result of me spinning off the road one time during a heavy thunderstorm. But don’t tell my mom I told you that. So anyway, while I was away last week, the love of my life not only bought new floormats, waxed my car, vacuumed it out, and had the oil changed, but also had four brand new tires put on my little Honda. So as I saw other cars struggle to stay on the road this morning, my car just hummed right along, and didn’t even think about hydroplaning. It was quite amazing, especially if you consider that Georgia roads do not have the absorbent top-layer that Dutch roads do, and are thus covered in several inches of rain after even the smallest shower.

I was also grateful for the sake of our yard, and since I was feeling rather magnanimous after a week off, I was also thankful on behalf of all of Georgia. We have had one of the driest winters in years (not counting the snow), and not only was our yard suffering, Georgia’s rivers and lakes have been at their lowest level in years. Lake Lanier, the body of water that apparently supplies most of Atlanta with water, has been dropping down to record lows, and subsequently, all of the greater Atlanta area has been on water restriction for years now. But this weekend’s downpour has helped a little, and that is always good to know. I suppose. OK, so maybe I am a little too grateful for rain, but I mean, you’re stuck in a car, it’s raining, and there’s nothing you can do about it, so you might as well think happy thoughts.

So while I’m in my happy place, I am now going to be grateful for the fact that a co-worker once gave me a huge umbrella that is going to keep me dry on my way to the car. Yay. That’s all I have to say.