I don’t think I’ve ever seen the sky over Maryland open up like it did just now.  For a moment it felt like a waterfall had perched over Casa del Garrett.  I’ve never heard rain pound my roof like it did just now.  And half the sky is bright with sunshine.

I was laying in bed…my energy levels have been really weak lately…and I heard what I thought was hail smacking down on my aluminum window awnings.  I rolled over and looked out and it wasn’t hail but those big fat raindrops that sometimes portend a sudden tropical downpour.  Lots of them.  And sure enough, what followed was a torrent of rain.  No kidding…my neighborhood street had almost dried out from the past couple days of rain, rain, rain, and in under a minute it was soaked again with a fast moving stream of water rushing toward the Jones Falls creek bed.  Then it stopped. 

The sky to my east is dark as slate.  To my west it’s all sun-shiny.  Everything is soaked again.  My poor front yard is a swamp.  I’d been thinking about a certain someone who lives in Florida when I laid down and then I suddenly get a downpour that reminds me of the weather down there.  I wish I could believe in that omen.  But here’s what my logical analytical brain is telling me: If this is going to be a wet winter, better hope it’s a warm one or I could be digging out of three or four feet of snow every few weeks. 

Every November I make a point to stock my basement supply shelves with things to last me through the winter so I don’t have to be going to the store all the time when the weather’s bad, and especially when it snows, because the people here in Maryland just dogpile on the stores whenever the forecast so much as breaths the word ‘snow’.  I buy my entire November through March supply of non-perisable items and pick through it until winter goes away.  I also make sure I have plenty of things on hand like batteries and over the counter remedies, soaps and cleaners and things for doing ad-hoc repairs.  I’m not a survivalist, I just hate going outside when the streets are all snowed up and iced over, and everyone is dog piling on the stores because ohmygodit’sgoingtosnoweekeekeek…  Winter is what bulk warehouse shopping was made for.

Oh look…the sun is out again…daring me to go for a walk…