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We've finally been getting some random sprinkles of rain here yesterday and today. Doesn't really do much good, but it gives you hope.

I was loading groceries into my car, next to young woman, and commented "You can tell it's going to rain soon. Listen to the birds, they're all squaking. First time I've heard them make a sound during the day in a long time."

Serious as a heart attack, she says "Yeah, but then they're going to get drenched."

Hoping she was joking I laughed "heh, I think they'll really like that!" She replied with "but then there's going to be all that mud."

I thought maybe she wasn't from around here, so as a last attempt I said "It hasn't rained at all in over 2 months, and it's been over 100 degrees every day for weeks until recently. Plants and animals have really been suffering"

"Yeah, I know. Last year at Austin City Limits (which started yesterday and ends Sunday) it rain and all the cars churned up mud where they were parked on the grass, and they had to replace all the grass."

By then, all my food was in the trunk, so I just got in my car and drove off.

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@chai2,

Clueless people. They are everywhere...
By the by, I hope it does pour and the birds do get drenched and there is mud everywhere and people having mud fights on healthy green grass. I mean this in a very nice way. Droughts suck... I'm doing a wee rain dance for you as we speak.

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I remember last year everyone at the festival was rolling and fighting in much much mud. I wish it upon them this year, too. Lots & lots of rain so they can roll around in mud. And we can enjoy roses, green grass, and lots of clean water to drink.

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Thanks ladies...

The thing is, unless you're visiting here specifically for ACLF, like you Pemerson, or you're a twenty something, you most likely don't pay a bit of attention to it, or vaguely know there's something going on this weekend. Crap, there's something going on every weekend somewhere in Austin.

The only things ACLF means to me is one, I can't take my regular route home from work on that Friday, because the road is closed off, and two, it's somewhat quieter when you're running errands, going about your day.

I'm glad someone got their priorities straight.

Hell, from what I heard somewhere, they aren't even letting cars park on the grass of the soccer fields, because of danger of fire from hot engines.

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It's THUNDERING over Georgetown TX now, as I speak. Everybody pretend you're squeezing a huge sponge, get that water out of those pregnant clouds!

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@Pemerson,

Just rained here this afternoon, and we'd had a forecast of only a 10% chance of precipitation. It was a nice drenching too. Of course it means more goathead spiny things will sprout, but the drenching was still good to watch. And hear, since there were lots of thunder rumbles.

The young woman you told about in the first post, Chai, was what I would call "out to lunch".

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@ossobuco,

Yeah, Ken was at the dog park and it poured. Not a drop here at home, 15 minutes away. Yeah, the bugs, that's why I sprayed 'round outside of house, they smell the rain. I've seen one spider since no rain, and that's the only thing positive about no rain.

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@Pemerson,

I've seen fewer cockroaches (ewwwww) this drought year - don't know if that is related. I think my source of them is a matter I can't presently fix (need to redo kitchen), related to drain lines.

The other positive about no rain, around here, is that the goatheads don't sprout.
But, I prefer some rain to lack of goatheads.

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Oh what I would give, to be blessed out by the wife, for walking in with mud on my shoes.

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@edgarblythe,

I'm reminded of a documentary I saw years ago.

A drought ridden area in Africa. The crew was documenting the effects of no rain for years on the animals, breeding, starvation, so forth.

At the end, the rains finally came.

You would have thought the animals would at least have raised their heads up to the sky, some sign of relief, nay happiness.

No. I remember this bird sitting on the ground, all hunched up, as if to say "Oh great, on top of everything else, now it's raining."

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@chai2,

What a great story. Like Rosanna Danna always said, "If it's not one thing it's something else."

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Reminds me of California, where they get brush fires which burn off the understory along with the trees, and then when it rains, they get mudslides. Sort of a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation.

A lot of people are completely clueless, and a lot of them pay no attention. At the end of a drought in Ohio many years ago, someone casually commented that the farmers should be happy now (as if they were ungrateful complainers). I refrained from pointing out that their crops were already ruined, and that all the rain was going to do was wash away some of their topsoil.

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@ossobuco,

Around here it appears the goatheads are the only thing growing.
They are the most annoying plant ever, I walk a lot, in the fields and trails along the river, and every year it requires building a new mental map of the worst patches to route around.

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@chai2,

I just finished watering outside, we haven’t had rain in a week. This is the first time I’ve had to do that in three months.

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We had a decent shower this morning. More forecast. We are over twenty inches behind. I'm willing to forget the twenty if we can just finish the year with normal seasonal weather.

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@edgarblythe,

That's pretty sad and seems to be more proof (to me) that the climate is changing. However at this time of the year, perhaps the seasonal rain patterns might be more likely to favor your area and hopefully Houston, TX, too.

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@jcboy,

Yea, curious, huh? In Sarasota (1 hr south), we've only had a passing shower or two. Looks semi-likely to get some sort of brief meaningless rainfall today...mebbe between 6-9 pm as usual? Nothing looks too threatening in the sky now. Typical tropical sky..fluffy billowy not dark clouds.

I think we got all of Edgar's rain over here for 3 months in southwest FL.

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@Ragman,

The TV voices have taken to saying the same pattern will repeat in 2012. (And, no, 2012's not the end of the world. I have a bottle in my medicine cabinet that expires in 2013. So that settles it.)

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@edgarblythe,

I hear Edgar! I paid for my driving license 'til 2016, so we got lots of time.

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@chai2,

Actually, even up here we've heard about your droughts and wild fires. I was in Texas two years ago, San Antonio, it struck me as being very dry then. There was very little green and the trees appeared to be shrunken down, withered looking. Probably just the breed...
We had an ongoing drought, it lasted about 10 years. All the lakes lost kilometers of shore line, ponds/dugouts dried up. One year, it was so bad, Farmers from across Canada sent hay here so that the cattle herds wouldn't starve. Wheat fields were sparse, their shafts at maturity were under a foot tall. I swear every cedar and paper birch tree in town died.
I have no idea how anyone could be unaware of the drought, especially if you live in the area. Some people's kids...

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