…actually… I’m lying. I do love me some old school Missy, though. In reality, I love the rain. I love the rain for the sound it makes on umbrellas, lawns, windows, roof shingles, and porches. I love the rain because my husband happens to love my frizzy hair. I love the rain for it’s ability to turn what would be a productive day into a lazy, movie marathon day. I love the rain for it’s ceaseless power of turning every living thing into a grateful, lush, paradise of green. I love the rain because I have really cute rainwear. For real. My boots and coat match, peeps. It’s a good thing I feel this way about a little precipitation, because we’re getting a bunch of it lately here in Connecticut.
My mom once told me that her dad (who passed before I was born) used to say he loved the rain because hearing it on the roof reminded him of the security he’d provided for his family. There is something so comforting about that. Matt and I had a new roof put on the house in September of 2010 and we are so glad we did. It was a big expense that crept up on us earlier than planned (we thought it would last a few more years) but the house is better for it. With each rainfall, I think of my Gramp listening to the rain on his roof 30 years ago, and how Matt and I are safe and dry. I wish everyone in the world the simple necessity of a dry home.
With our new roof and my optimistic view on the wet stuff, we weren’t too scared when all of New England was freaking out about Hurricane Irene and the Noreaster that followed suit last summer. Turns out we needed to fear the rain a bit more, because that rain was intense. We (thankfully) didn’t have any major damage, but our 2-year old lawn was put to the test. Feast your eyes on how our house held up to the elements those fateful weeks last summer.
With Hurricane Irene, we lost power after the storm had passed, when we thought we were in the clear. We didn’t have many trees down in the yard, but we had our “fair share of water.”
Fair.
Share.
Of.
Water.
With Irene in the rearview and the power back on, we were hit with another storm 10 days later. The backyard (where Matt is standing above) survived, but we were hit hard on the front end. This was the view at the top of the driveway looking left up the street…
…and looking down the street to the right…
So awesome, right? That was sarcasm. See the directional flow of the water? 50% of it was coming over my boots, down our driveway, into our front yard and into our basement. Luckily, we have a pretty powerful sump pump, but it still made us nervous to have most of the street’s runoff streaming down our driveway. We were able to secure some sandbags from the town to alleviate the flow.
Whoa… did I not mention the backhoe at the top of our driveway? My bad. That was there for a few hours scooping up rogue rocks strewn all over our street. Here is a view further down our road.
Needless to say, we found alternate routes to work that day.
Those storms were nuts, and luckily, the rain we are getting now is the good kind… that is to say it’s steady but not monsoonish, (a made-up word) and hydrates all of the grasses and plants sufficiently for the impending days of sunshine and heat. Matt and I are off to sit on the porch and enjoy a beer, listening to the rain and counting our blessings of a roof over our heads.
Is there anything you love or hate about the rain?
P.S. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out this post about how our house fared in the October freakshow of last year. Spoiler alert: the yard looked like a war-zone.