Way back when, really years ago, when I was a single mom and my daughter was a cute little toddler, she was afraid of thunder and lightening storms, horribly afraid. I didn't want this to affect her in any way later in life. We were living in Houston, Texas at the time and there were plenty of thunder and lightening and rainstorms, practically every week some months. We also lived on a second floor apartment that looked out onto a bayou where we could see the water rise during a really heavy downpour. This apartment had a small protected balcony and I had a wading pool on it for her enjoyment. So, in my incredible mother wisdom that I certain had at the time (meaning I was lucky to have a clue about anything those days), I figured we'd go outside and sit in the rain and storms and watch the lightening and hear the thunder and I'd tell her stories about it and possibly she would lose her fear of the noise and light and rain and all. So we did. We'd take a snack, sit on a blanket, hold the umbrella over the two of us if the rain was blowing or just over our feet if it was just raining steadily down, and I'd make up stories about thunder and lightening and rain. Can't even remember a single story but I think I was rather verbose back then. Nothing mythical like Thor or Zeus or anything, just stupid little things that a toddler would find funny and amusing.
Well, I am here to tell you now that this worked wonderfully. Worked way above my expectations. Worked so well that she has become a connoisseur of thunder and lightening rainstorms and dearly loves them. She likes best to be curled up inside so she can watch and listen to them. Gets really irritated if she has to be inside with no windows and cannot see the rain at least. Opens windows no matter what the temperature to hear the rain better. Some day I am sure she will buy a house with a tin roof to enhance this as well.
Now, years later, she is a wonderful adult and still loves a good rainstorm but for some reason, they evade her! We've moved around quite a bit as has she and she's ended up in some locations where it just doesn't rain very much. Usually, she manages to leave those locations before too long. However, we've come to realize that she is a "rain-hole phenomenon"! This means that where she is, it will likely not rain! Last year when she lived in Houston again for awhile, the site of the beginning of her love for storms, the place where the rain and humidity stay high constantly, Houston had a drought. She was there about a year, and hardly any rain at all. Once she left, the drought broke! She was back for awhile this year during their rainy season and no rain again until the day after she left!
And we are living in England, right? Damp, dreary, wet, raining, dripping and such? Right? NOPE! She visits us every other month when she is on her rotational time off her job. Rain can be predicted for the first week of her visit and disappear from everyone's radar screen the minute her plane touches down at Heathrow. Rain pops up in Surrey (our county) and will be showing hard rain everywhere in Surrey except for a bright and sunny hole over our community! Rain scheduled for the entire week always shows a hole over us. No rain for us and yet it can be pouring down rain less than 2 miles away. She can move from our house to the neighboring town 5 miles away where she goes to the gym and it will rain at home while she is gone then rain in the neighboring town when she has returned home. She is like the Charlie Brown character "Pig Pen" only while he had dirt attracted to him like a magnet, she repeals rain like a negatively charged particle. You have no idea how much this really "pisses" her off since she loves rain so much.
We would really like to find out what causes her to have a "rain-hole" over her location. We could rent her out to countries that are inundated during the monsoons. We'd make a fortune having her sit in a city and keep the rain away when someplace has reached their saturation limit or are well over their needed amount. Unfortunately, no idea why this is and if it's a permanent phenomenon or not. So to my friends, when you know my daughter is visiting, you can plan all your outdoor activities in relative safety, knowing that they will not be rained out. When she is gone, "here comes da rain".
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