Day 53: Drenched but Determined

 

Ah, the good old Irish summer — just when we were starting to get notions about having a long stretch of sunny days, the weather gods have arrived back with a vengeance to remind us exactly where we live. Gone are the clear blue skies, and back are the trusty “sunny spells and scattered showers,” or as Met Éireann says, “intermittent rain.” Showers, me @rse!

I decided to head out for my daily walk, lured by a bright patch of sunshine. As I passed my rain jacket in the hallway, I paused. That age-old Irish dilemma played out in my head: Will I bring it, or will I be sweltering under its plastic embrace when the sun stays out? Perhaps it's maturity — or simply hard-earned experience — but this time, I grabbed it. “Just in case,” I told myself.

And boy, was I glad I did.

Barely twenty minutes down the road, the heavens opened. Not just a shower, but buckets of rain, horizontal sheets driven by a playful breeze that somehow managed to find me even as I attempted to shelter under a tree. There’s a particular kind of wet that soaks you to the bones and then laughs at you for thinking you could stay dry.

With no alternative but to wait it out, I stood there watching the road glisten and the puddles multiply. True to form, within minutes the clouds parted, the sun reappeared as if nothing had happened, and the whole world seemed to steam. I pressed on with my walk, noting with amusement the water vapour visibly rising from my rain jacket — years of teaching the water cycle finally paying off in real-life observation.

As I trudged along, neighbours passed me by in their cars. There was the usual beeping of horns, windows rolled down with cheery encouragement shouted out:
“Good on ya, Noeleen!”
“Keep her lit!”
And my personal favourite:
“Are ya trying to shrink in the rain?”

Now, wouldn’t that be a business idea? Skip the diet plans, forget the fat jabs — just dance in the rain and let Mother Nature do the work. Every cloud would definitely have a silver lining.

Edit: Later this evening this was the weather

As I said earlier...just wait a minute.