our sunshine goes a.w.o.l.

so today . . . rollie said, "i think maybe i will turn off the sprinklers."

we are drowning here. drowning. you know that song... "it never rains in california..." well, generally that is true. but the song goes on to say, "but girl, don't they warn ya, it pooooouuurs, man, it pours." and it is pouring! as my friend jessica says, "it is pouring pandas and lions!" (i'm not sure exactly what that means. i don't know if it is a cultural phrase or just her take on the rain. but it is certainly raining more ferociously than cats and dogs!!)

i try not to blog about the weather too often, and i have resisted for the last four days! but it is still raining--hard, oregon rain--and i cannot stay silent any longer!

AAAGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!

rain is necessary. i know that. and california people are always complaining about water shortages. so we really shouldn't be whining about a little rain.

but we aren't having "a little" rain. we are having buckets of rain.

the streets are flooding. there is standing water in the grass. parking lots are mine fields of puddles. water is seeping through the cement block walls at school and leaking into some of the classrooms. it is a nightmare.

(on the positive side, the kids at school are napping really well!)

our dogs are freaked out! we just had a new patio cover installed, and the rain hitting that corrugated plastic is really, really loud! they do NOT want to go outside. for any reason. they go stand at the doggie door and wistfully look outside. finally, when they can't stand it any longer, they make a mad dash for the edge of the patio, and then race back in. and jump into our laps, wet feet and all!

i do not remember rain like this before. but when i went back and reread my weather blogs (to make sure i wasn't writing too much of the same thing,) i saw that we did have a storm last january. it lasted a week, and there are five blog posts to prove it! so maybe this isn't so unusual. maybe this is just our annual winter storm.

i don't mind a little rain. really, i don't. but we are getting ready to spend a week in oregon for christmas, and i have checked their weather. it is going to rain. the whole time we are there! by the time this is over, i will have had to wear my one pair of relatively waterproof footwear for almost two weeks. two weeks!! my feet are not happy about this. my wardrobe is not happy about this. my other shoes are not happy about this.

all this rain is just being wasted now, anyway. the ground is saturated! i am seriously worried that the palm trees are going to start falling over...

sigh. i miss the sun...