Glorious wet

It's an in-house day:  I have a feeling of, "I hope I'm not forgetting something..."  I just may be.  Oh well.  This is the kind of day that I have loved since I landed here, on this beloved planet.  The weather is dramatic, rain pounding down, gusts of wind.  Mmmm, the kind of day that when I was a teenager, I loved to grab Duke and ride him head-on into the wind and rain.  Did he love it too?  He seemed to; snorting and tossing his head, and so responsive to my leg, ankle, heel or the shifting of my body to one side or the other.  We raced through the pasture, through the water rising in the low spots, until we were steaming and panting with the wildness of it all.  I love these storms!

Coming home this morning I saw these!  I had to stop abruptly and flip a U, and come back to believe my eyes:  pussy willows!  Out of the car, I could hear the roar of the water rushing through the willows, through the culverts, under the bridge.  Wow.  I love it!  Oh, I already said that.

Now look:  this is lots.  More than enough.  Rising with every burst of cloud.  The water moves quickly, with an urgency known only to it.  Downhill.  Towards the Pacific.  Move, move, move.  The low places fill with clear water, and start the movement.  Of course, with cultivation and civilization, roads and pavement, much of the water forgets how to soak-in.  Rather, it begins the mad-dash.  Let us not forget that it is managed and directed and denied its natural tendency to soak first, to replenish the ground water, to fill the soil with moisture, wetness, drenched-ness.  Rain water which lands in or on or about urban areas quickly becomes a raging, swirling, entity.  Perhaps this explains the tendency of the humans to drive their four-tired machines out into the middle of large, moving currents where their roads were yesterday and become stranded.  Oh, thank goodness for cell phones, eh?

At my feet lies the smaller world, of tiny weeds, pebbled pavement, and a drain.  Humans tend to think of everything, and to build things that they think up.  Humans drain swamps, fill in gullies and springs, build things on the top.  Usually it isn't until much later that discoveries are made showing the unfortunate results of the ingenious and incessant building.

"Well," says Luna, "when are we going back out?  Huh?  Let's not waste this day!  It's winter, we have a giant puddle, an orange toy for throwing, and an opportunity to drown a pup!  Let's go!"

oxxoxoxoLC