Rain Rant

It's nice to see someone rejoicing in the moisture, even if it's just a little bit of rejoicing.

"Northern Arizona saw the most precipitation over the past two months. Flagstaff recorded 6.58 inches of rainfall in January.The normal is 2.18 inches, said meteorologist Keith Kincaid of the National Weather Service in Phoenix."

Here in Morrison Ranch we got 2.46 inches of rain, according to our water expert.

Sometimes I get the feeling that we are not allowed to be happy about the rainfall totals; we always get the wagging finger and the "BUT the rains don't mean an end to the drought." Does this mean that being happy will jinx things and we won't get any more rain? Or that we will suddenly forget that we have much water to make up in our reservoirs and so we will rejoice by all leaving our hoses on in the back yard and letting the water run when we brush our teeth, and gleefully plant the most water-intensive plants we can find, and who knows what other water-wasting behaviors? It seems to me that most of the people I know remember that we live in a desert, and do their best to conserve our resources, and won't forget that just because we have more rain than average.

When I married the Mister, I thought that part of being a farmer's wife was to pray for rain. I was a little surprised when he told me that I needed to be specific: pray for snow in the mountains and rain in the north to fill up the lakes, but not here because rain stains the cotton and reduces cotton's quality. Since the drought started about 8 years ago, we've given up on the specifics and just prayed for rain in the state.

I suspect that when the Hohokam Indians did their rain dances and got the results they desired, they danced some more in gratitude. I, for one, am doing my own dance of gratitude. (And no, I don't think this means the drought is over. Sigh.)