Sweet November Rain

I decided several years ago not to complain about weather conditions, and although there has been a little bit of grumbling and backsliding from time to time, I have not wavered far from that decision.  I recall one day several years ago when I was running with Fred and complaining about the "heat" (by which I meant temperatures in the 80s); he informed me that he had just returned from Atlanta that weekend where it was a very humid 98 degrees.  There really is nothing to complain about up here where runners from Louisiana and Savannah and Florida and "Hot-lanta" escape and join us during the summer for a little relief.  (Runners in those places begin their daily runs at 5:30 a.m.)  On the hottest of days, we run "The Shade Route," down to the end of Fifth Street, up Chestnut, and back around unpaved Lower Lake Road in the cool of the rhododendron, under the shade of towering trees.

So I am the last to complain about the rainy cycle we suddenly find ourselves in, after weeks and weeks of drought - 36 days without a drop of rain recorded at the Asheville Airport, and Gatlinburg in flames.  The wildfires have finally been extinguished, the water table is rising, the lakes are filling up again, and the mountain streams are gurgling under the roads where we run.  I ran up Big Bearpen yesterday morning (which I have avoided because of the dust), between the rain on Sunday and the rain this morning, and all along the way I could see little streams and waterfalls cascading down the side of the mountain.  It is a time of year for watching the weather radar, choosing the best opportunity to run, and perhaps actually getting wet again! 

After such a long drought, what a wonderful experience it is to get wet from time to time, the satisfying fragrance of fallen leaves all around in this sweet November rain, the Christmas lights sparkling in the fog, wet shoes squishing and splashing in puddles on the road.  And a warm home to which we return again in soggy thankfulness.

"He will give the rain for your land in its season,

The early and late rain,

That you may gather in your grain and your new wine and your oil."

 - Deuteronomy 11:14