The First Rain

Each year, I note the first rain. I don’t know why really. Probably because we, uh, live in the desert and rain is a rare occurrence. I was about to say it’s lovely when it rains also, but I’m not certain about that one.

This year we’ve had several days of sprinkles but last night was the first real rain.

By now I am hyper-sensitive to changes in the weather while I sleep. Mostly to wind because wind means a haboob (dust storm) and a haboob means get up and turn off the coolers and close the windows and shove towels under the door and hope tomorrow is a day your house helper is supposed to come because the sky and therefore, your house will soon fill with orange dust.

So this morning at 3am I awoke to wind. I immediately looked out the window for signs of a haboob. The signs were there, so Mikey and I made our rounds. But as I lay back down for a few minutes, I heard something else. It was definitely the sound of rain drops! So I got back up and started a whole second set of rounds. I went out on the balcony to bring in the chair cushions and make sure the sandbox was covered. Under my sun shade it felt like a cool mist, but when I stepped out from under the shade cool wet drops were falling steadily on my skin. Refreshing. I stood there for a moment enjoying the early morning quiet and wetness of our normally busy and dry city.

Then I went back inside, turned on the light in the bathroom and checked my skin in the mirror before I laid back down in bed. I learned a long time ago that the rain isn’t always clean. But last night I didn’t have mud drops instead of rain drops and I didn’t have to take a shower to clean myself off after standing in the rain. Glory!

We expect more rain to come soon… and more haboobs, unfortunately… this year there have been a crazy amount of them. Lately, there have been more dusty days than not! Blech.