I Like Rain

I Like Rain

I like rain. I like the way it made puddles in the dirt street in front of our house, when I was a child. I like it today when it falls in small streams on my window, and causes the glass inside to become a writing surface, where you can write or draw anything you want, with your finger. I like rain that makes small puddles around the stalks of corn standing in a field.
To my ears, one of the best sounds in the world is the steady drumming of rain as it falls on the outstretched leaves of a field of cabbage. I like rain.
Newly transplanted tomatoes,peppers, and other plants spring to life with the coming of rain.
Windshield wipers begin their waving, and bring to mind that they should have been replaced sometime earlier. Welcome showers bring relief to over-heated runners and others toiling in the heat. There is, too, that rain which soaks a person's clothing to such a degree, that surrender is the only option left.
The rain here in Hawaii is often only a gentle whisper. Looking up, tourists fail to see a cloud, and wonder where it is coming from. This is the rain that creates rainbows. The formula is this: Light gentle rain plus sun equals a rainbow. We also have fireworks twice a week, but they are much more noisy.
Rain often leads to the use of umbrellas. They range in size from those little silly ones found in cocktails, to the huge ones carried by golfers, and sledom used. And when it does, the rain causes the golfer to renew his faith in why he bought it in the first place.
Once sometime ago, I was talking to a man from somewhere in Europe, who told me that he started his business by making and selling a single umbrella.
And there once were traveling men who mended pans, and there were scissors grinders, as well as umbrella menders. They are all gone now.
Years ago,Tonto and I could have used one of those umbrella menders. We were in Florence, Italy, and it was pouring. I bought an umbrella for five euros, and it quickly fell apart. I still liked rain. We consoled ourselves with a gelato, and waited until it was over.
I remember a tune I heard as a kid during WWII. I think it was called "The Umbrella Man." The verse goes something like this:
Too da lama nama (repeat twice) too do lie a any umbrellas (repeat twice)to fix today?" I still like rain.
Aloha
Grant