mud love

The rain is relentless around here. It started last week and has poured, spit or spotted for the last five days without much let up. Just to keep things interesting, the temperature will move up and down the thermostat to keep you guessing about the comfort levels from day to day. Some days it's will be too warm for a fire - which is just a lovely touch for the fall, rural setting. The warm weather rain allows for some moderate out door labor and the ability to sit on the porch, smoke a cigarette and enjoy the free lawn watering and suckle the last bit of summer out of the year. The cold weather, pneumonia rain that drives you indoors is good for inspiring fireplace fires and makes all warm foods sound delicious. Each morning, you wake up and you start to check for signs of what kind of day it's going to be, weather-wise, before you even throw off the covers. Your ears listen for rain drops on the roof, the brightness of the room tells you if it's cloudy or bright and the air on your face tells you how cold it is. Dark, cold days make it almost impossible to climb out of bed. It's as if nature does not want us to waste the energy. Perhaps we are part bear in some remote way.

These early stages of fall are practice for the harsher months that lie ahead. Those really dark months of the year that have no doubt as to whether or not it's going to be a cold day or not. To get ready for those constant, cripplingly cold days, you have to practice putting on layers of clothes, boots, gloves, coats and hats. You have to refresh your memory on how to do required work with thicker layers on. I really enjoy the feeling of coming into a warm house, covered in the smell of the outdoor cold, taking off layers of insulation and then enjoying a really hot beverage, especially if all of this follows a long period of outdoor labor. If there are others around, I enjoy looking at the matted down hairstyles of others and wondering how strange my hair must look.

So, you practice. You get it down to a science and you know you are ready for winter, then the next day, it's 80 degrees outside. And so is the next day, and the next day, and you have to start the process of preparation all over again.

After such a long, dry summer where most of the farmers crops barely hung on and made it to harvest, you would think that everyone would appreciate the rain, but you would be wrong. Rain, for all of it's magic, is really on temporary much like warm bath water. Rain is not the answer that the farmers wanted to see, especially now that the growing season is over. What the locals want to see is snow. Why? Doesn't snow mean cold, frozen, nothing growing? Yes, it does, but snow also water storage. It also means letting cold cars heat up in the morning and driving slow on icy roads. Farmers see snow as a visible reminder that there is water for next spring and next year's crops. Water for crops is good, as I understand it, it makes them grow, which I guess is the goal there but, for every two fans of the rain - like the snuggling lovers or the allergy sufferers - there are ten rain haters -such as the recently perm-ed or the seasonal affective disorder sufferers. I know this will sound odd, but the farmers fall into both categories. I am not sure why, but I think that generally, farmers are just unhappy with everything, no matter if it's going their way or not.

The hardest thing to live with isn't so much the cold air, the constant rain, the drenched clothes or the drastic daily changes in temperature, the real nightmare is mud. Mud that never ends. Mud that finds way to stick to everything and actually learns new ways to find it's way onto your clean clothes. Mud that collects quickly on the kitchen floor. There is enough mud on that kitchen floor to plant flowers in. A pig could be happy with that much mud. This is magic mud.

In an attempt to cut down on the amount of mud in the house, gravel has been placed in front the steps that lead into the house. There is a hope that this will "knock off" some of the stickier mud and make it easier to control the amount of mud in the house. This is, of course, lunacy. Mud knows the plan. It can see what you are trying to do. Mud will learn how to work the system. Mud knows that if it can place itself on the gravel free steps, then your best gravel-stepping efforts, will be for nothing. Like I said, magic. It's smart mud. This is mud that knows that if it wants to stay in the house it has to dry immediately upon coming in contact with flooring and then it must harden to a density and strength of a diamond. It has to be able to shred up any mop and resist any scouring. It takes a chisel to get this mud to move. If you don't chisel it up daily, it will cut you as you walk across the floor barefoot.

For now, I am going to just enjoy the rain from inside. I have enough mud to work with for today and I'm sure tomorrow's mud will be just as lovely, but I have some things I can do from my dry perch that will be just fine, thanks. The mud will have to sit and wait for another victim to come along.