Rain, Rain Go Away...

I know that our family and friends NOB have been suffering through worse weather this winter, but it hasn't been its usual 'warm and sunny' down here.

We have friends in Boston (Hi Wally & Pauli, and Kim), family in Washington, DC, lots of family in the northern peninsula of Michigan (where it always snows - just worse this year) and Kentucky, friends in Texas (snowy, too!), Santa Fe, rainy in the Silicon Valley and the great NorthWest who have been slogging through rain and snow this year.

Still, it's been unseasonably cold and wet here in our part of Mexico.  I suppose the worse part is that it affects our homes since almost no one has central heating.  Concrete and brick homes adjust to the outside temperature quickly.  And once chilled, it takes a few days to warm up - if there aren't more rain and clouds in the meanwhile.

In January of the year we moved to San Miguel in the Spring, there was heavy rain (we were told it was unusual) that flooded homes near the stream that sometimes flows through town.  Perhaps it was just because so much junk accumulates while it's dry and when the rains came the junk - and the water behind it - got stuck on the low side of town.  I hear it was pretty nasty.

We had a slight repetition the next year when we were in town, though we were happy that we lived atop a hill in our little colonia of San Rafael, and not down by the stream bed.

We're nowhere near a stream now - once they finally fixed the storm drain at the bottom of our block - but there are others that run through town, mostly unnoticeable until the rains arrive.

And the dogs!  Neither Miyake nor Fiyero particularly like the bad weather.  They used to go outside and stand, ears flapping in the wind when we lived in Reseda.  But now if there's wind - much less thunder and lightning - they head for cover.  Maybe it's the way the windows and doors shake in the wind, I suspect. 

Miyake heads for the master bedroom's bathroom and huddles up in a corner and shakes.  Fiyero is a bit better, but during yesterday afternoon's thunder storm he was on the bed with me (I was reading, not sleeping) and got as close to me as possible (tried reading with a dog in your lap?).  He did calm down when the storm passed and even Miyake was back to normal by dinner time.  Unlike the day before yesterday when she wasn't calmed down enough to eat until nearly 8 pm.

Other than the rain last night - and its recurrence about 4 am this morning (it's just letting up now, around 7:30) - we're thinking that our gardener won't be working today - too wet!  Maybe he'll find time for us during the week???

So we feel no less for our friends NOB who have had to put up with the terrific weather this past winter, but are feeling a little sorry for ourselves, too.  What happened to 'Warm and Sunny' Mexico?