Rain, Nice & Driving

View of I-30 after a slow start has eased up

The drive felt never ending. Of course, it would be so, I was after all doing 10mph on a 70mph road. The maximum speed I reached today the entire route was close to 55mph. It was slow and boring. Mind kept wandering in and out of past, present and future, I was emoting to the songs on the radio or better still sang along with a few to stay away and focused. The darkness of the morning and the pounding rain took me back to the drive from Nice to somewhere just past Monaco.

It was still dark but the alarms were blaring. We had woken up to beating rain. The sky was lit brightly by the intermittent lightning and thunder roared all around us. For a few minutes I wondered if my decision to leave early towards Roma was a very good one. We climbed down three flights of stairs as the elevator had been turned off in the apartment (saving energy, the French way) and got soaking wet while loading into the car. 6 wet adults and 3 barely awake kids started out driving in the winding roads of Nice heading towards Roma. Brother-in-Law was driving and I was navigating. Within ten minutes the car was silent and it was just the two of us awake. The rain seemed relentless and the darkness did not leave us until it was close to 10 in the morning.

When the clouds parted, we were already in Italy getting out of one of the many tunnels. Mountains on one side and blue ocean on the other. Villages crowding up as if they wanted to all be in that one little valley. Tunnel after tunnel and valley after valley we drove through many villages until there were no more mountains but flat Tuscan land. The drive is etched in my memory as one of the most beautiful routes I have ever taken.

The drive was divided in to parts. Parts where we enjoyed the beauty and the parts where we wanted to get out of the misery of driving on boring flat empty land. The part where we had amazing coffee and the part where we were trying really hard to find a place to eat. In the end, it is always worth it. Apparently, everything is.

Like today, when I made it into work after an hour and forty-five minutes of driving, it was worth it. The darkness still has not left us and neither has the rain but the snow has started to drift by gently now 60 miles away at my home. Winter in Dallas, I love every bit of you. You are temperamental, you are 70 degrees on one day and 17 the next, you can snow and also do the rain but you do ice the best. You constantly keep us on our toes wondering what your next step is making every winter fresh and leaving lots of new memories to hold on to.

Cold, Tired and Wet from Rain 

ART

Ghanana Ghanana....and no Rain!

Each day I look at my dying yard, at my red oak that is almost no more. I think of ways to revive it and I cannot find many. With the strict watering rules, I try to hose them down at least twice a week because I would definitely at least want to save the tree...and then of course there is the natural way of doing it in some parts of the world..."Rain."

Well, reality check, I live in Dallas...could almost qualify for a desert...we get thunderstorms...not like in India where we get monsoons when the whole city/district/state is flooded for three weeks straight. Here it rains, pours, lightning, thunders, and then storms out too as soon as it came.

On Wednesday, I saw rain clouds forming over my head as I was driving home. I got hopeful, I know I am fifty miles away and it possibly wont rain at all in my part of the metroplex but I prayed and sang..."Ghanan Ghanan....in my head...I saw all the right stuff, bijli (lightning), kale megha (black clouds), and even heard the Ghanan (thunder)...and the water came down pouring and cleaning my car. I was so happy...I called husband to rejoice with him. He stepped out and confirmed that the land outside our house was still parched, no clouds, and not a sign of rain...the tempo of the song slowed to the sad ending of the song in the movie in my head...
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This happens every time. A few weeks ago, I was going to meet Girl Friend for dinner. She called and said, it is pouring over here...I popped out, the clouds seemed ominous...husband and daughter were sprawled out on the deck chairs taking a nap after a swim...I told them about the rains, hushed them in when husband said, "It is not going to rain here, you go ahead."

Got to the restaurant, the clouds were very dark still...but no rain, waited outside for friends, and still no rain. Friend came in after ten minutes and all the clouds were gone...no rain again at my house! Dang it!

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Husband goes to NJ and visits my brother. He goes house hunting with my brother and calls me and tells, "with my limited knowledge I could see that houses in NJ do not have foundation issues."

Heck yeah! It friggin' rains there! Unlike Dallas!!! So I reminded him gently, "They have basement problems."

Husband said, "Well, at least they have a basement!"
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Anyways, I guess for now, I am going to pray the red oak survives and that our neighborhood gets lashed with some good rain which does not bring with it other perils like tornadoes and such...

Until, then I will do an Amir Khan watching for rains and keep saying, "Dugna Laagan dena padega."

Love
Dry ART