rain and perception
You know, the question of whether it's raining is not as simple as we might imagine. The other day, for example, I was working in the garden (really?!) and there was maybe a little drizzle coming down: an increasing drizzle one might say. But there was no sudden downpour, no distinct moment where I could say 'it is now raining'; besides, I wasn't getting very wet. Nevertheless, when I went out to do some errands I couldn't help but notice other people scurrying across the parking lot with their heads down, or huddled under umbrellas. And here I was just strolling along with my head uncovered.
Now, this evening saw something of the same situation, only more so. Sara (one of my young charges) had soccer tryouts, and the setup for such things was such that no makeup date was possible, were it to rain. And it wasn't raining at the start, just, you know, misting. But after about twenty minutes of the ninety minute tryout, any impartial observer would have had a hard time arguing that the rain was not now coming down. Still, the kids on the field played on (not that they had much choice) and the adults, some of them anyways, stayed on the sidelines. Some of them--myself included--even declined the use of umbrellas. It is an interesting psychological observation.
And we've had plenty of time to observe it, because it's been raining plenty. Well, there hasn't been a great deal of rain actually falling, in terms of filling up the rain gauges; what there has been is about ten days in a row when the forcast was mostly cloudy, chance of rain. So folks have been feeling rainy for a long time. I don't mind it though. It's good for the planties.