Nothing Doing

May 28, 2026 — Pat Bertram

I live in a town with a unique atmospheric configuration: a donut. Sometimes storms that punish surrounding areas gently move around the town as if to spare us good folk. Other times, it says “Oops, made a mistake,” and dumps the months of missed rain all at once while sparing others.

It rained almost all day yesterday, from about 11:00am to 8:00pm. Part of that was a beginning and an ending drizzle, but for the rest, it was a respectable rain. I imagine with as widespread as the storm was and as long as it lasted, that this entire area got much needed rain, not just as, and that’s great — it’s been months since we’ve had any moisture that made a significant difference.

The best part for me is that, aside from the great all-around soaking rather than simply the area watering that I do, is that I get two days off from . . . well, from everything. I won’t need to water for at least a couple of days. The ground is so wet that although pulling up weeds is easier, the heavy clay mud takes the “fun” out of the chore. And the alley I’d have to navigate if I wanted to use my car, is a quagmire.

It’s funny that even though every day is a day off for me, rain days and après rain days still seem a special treat of nothing doing (doing a whole lot of nothing, in other words). Oh, for sure, I will do things — a load of laundry is drying at the moment — but I get to cocoon myself in a dry home while the outside world deals with mud, bugs, and humidity. Tomorrow I’ll probably go out and pull a few weeds or do something to make me feel productive, because by then, the squishy mud will have dried to a more even footing. (You’d think with my grassy areas and crushed rock pathways, that mud wouldn’t be an issue, but most of my garden areas are too big for a simple reach. I actually have to climb in among the plants to get to the objectionable ones.) But tomorrow is not something I have to worry about today.

Today is . . . freedom!