It's a Love/Hate Relationship

It's funny the things you miss when you are away from "home," or at least the things you miss from the place you spent 20 of your 27 years (I'm not sure where to qualify "home" as).

I had a serious love/hate relationship with the rain in Tennessee. There was little I loved more than hearing a good thunderstorm (not of the tornado variety) roll over the house while we were all safe, warm and dry inside. Watching it pound against the windows, hearing the noise against the roof, seeing the lightning flashing in the sky...I loved it.

And there was little I hated more than driving in the same weather. Maybe it was the time my little Honda Accord spun out on the interstate. Maybe it was the time my wife almost died in a rainstorm car accident, surviving with a broken arm, leg, and stitches in her head. Maybe it's just an after-effect of driving 2 very light cars for 5+ years (the Honda and a Saturn) and feeling them hydroplane every time a good rain hit I-65. Probably a combination of all 3.

 By the way, I was one of those people who slowed down in the rain just to piss everyone else off. Or maybe it's because I have a firm understanding of some basic laws of physics that say friction, the thing keeping your car on the road on a curve, is drastically reduced when the tires and road are wet.

 I love people who say, "I hate it when people drive slow in the rain!" Those are the people who slept through physical science, I guess.

Anyway, we went from September to the end of May with absolutely no rain. There were only a few drizzles in August 2011. For the last couple of weeks, we've been watching rain clouds converge on the horizon, but disappearing before nearing us (the yukon flats are surrounded by mountain ranges, and weather tends to happen mostly around us).

Finally, three days ago, rain came! We had to run outside just to watch it. It was gone pretty quickly. Then, that night, we heard the rain against our windows and roof. It was nothing close to a good ol' Tennessee rainstorm, but it was pretty magical to us! Today the rain came again, surpassing a light drizzle for maybe an hour, actually forcing us to close our windows!

 I'm still waiting for my thunderstorm. I may have to make it back down to the lower 48 before I get to experience that again. 18-24 months without seeing lightning or hearing rain really pound against a rooftop? Put that on my list of things not to take for granted anymore.