The Monsoon Season

In Florida, there is a definite rainy season. It's the span of time right after ungodly heat and directly before blessed cool evening breezes. When the rainy season hits, it's quick and to the point. It pounds water down in buckets, creating waterfront property in a matter of minutes, overflowing in-ground pools and highway ditches and residential swales. It starts in the early evening and continues on though the night, sometimes even into the light of day. It ruins backyard barbecues, beach afternoons and makes dog-walking a near impossibility.

But, as native Floridians and long-transplanted "other-staters" know, it is what makes Florida the paradise of a state it is. "La Florida," as the Spanish named us, is resplendent in flowers and lush, green lawns most of the year, even in the bane of winter. It's not just the mild climatic temperatures that result in our tropical splendor. It's the rain.

Rainwater replenishes our aquifer, in the criss-crossed limestone caverns deep down below where our drinking water comes from. It fills up our rain barrels for watering gardens; it decreases the salinity of our oceans and makes our rivers flow. Most of our native species of plants are like camels; palm trees, yucca plants and succulents store up the necessary moisture in their trunks and leaves to survive the long periods of drought which Florida gets during winter. After all we have no snow to soak the ground during those months. Most of our state has a mixture of sand and loam, which drains readily and does not retain moisture. It's why we flock to home and garden stores before the rainy season and buy bags and bags of  $2.00 mulch to spread around our plants to help the soil to absorb water down to the plant roots.

And here you thought it was just because it looked nice.

As I write this, the rain is a virtual deluge. My dogs will not go out in this rain, and I anticipate it will go on for hours. So, I also anticipate having to wash rugs and clean floors, all under the sad and woeful eyes of the pups who really never intended to do the "wrong thing." The water I save in not having to turn on sprinklers ends up being used in the washing machine. The humidity doesn't help the lacquer and dimensional adhesive I use on my art to dry, and my internal barometer is signaling a nasty headache in the works.

The pros and cons of Florida's rainy season are many. Wet, smelly dogs are a con. Watching the rain come down and fall onto palm trees and ferns, washing away the dust and grit from their leaves is a pro. Having the sun come up and the rain stop for a few hours, warming the ground which smells of clean earth and ion-charged air is =definitely a pro.

I'll take the rain, and be glad of it. I've been known to dance in many a rainstorm in lieu of a "proper" shower. Rain just does something good for your soul. Embrace it and don't complain. It falls for a reason, and it's not our place to question.