Rain, Glorious Rain!

We need rain so badly that several of the area cattle ranchers are finding their water holes going dry. Our water table is normally so high here, that if one has a large amount of livestock, he digs a big, deep pit called a cattle pit or cow pit or cow pond.  The pit fills in nicely and the cattle gather around the edges to drink and wander into it here and there.   Sometimes children swim in the cattle pits.  But I suspect that was mostly in the old days before we had so many experts to tell us that these pits might have germs.  Really?  Germs?  In standing water where cows pee and poop?  Good thing we have the experts.

But, alas! I digress.  These cattle pits are drying up this year.  One neighbor dug a new pit in a different location after his usual one dried up (think bulldozer and backhoe, 8-15 ft deep) and couldn't find water at all. Usually the water is only a couple of feet down.

But blessedly, praise the Lord, I woke up to the sound of a good heavy rain spattering on the house and flowing, gurglingly, through the downspouts.  

I instantly had a version of the song, "Food, Glorious Food," from the musical, Oliver, stuck in my head.  Instead of "Food," I was singing, "Rain, Glorious Rain!"



Who knows where such things come from?  I've never even seen Oliver.  Nor do I know any of the words to the song except "Food, Glorious Food."  Nor did I even know it was from that particular musical.  It was just a refrain stuck in my head.  

After I got up, I put on my bathrobe and went out on my front porch to stand in the falling rain.  I let it drizzle on my head, and bluster past and around me.  It was indeed glorious.  

Then the lightening struck a few times in the distance, so I figured I ought to come inside.  The thunder was not following it too closely, so I was probably safe.  But I remembered the exhortations of those experts, and how we are warned about the great many miles lightning can travel.  So I pulled myself away from the experience and came inside.

I might just as well have had "Singing in the Rain" stuck in my head.  But no, that's not how brains work. We take what we get in that regard.

I didn't exactly go out and dance around in the puddles like Gene Kelly, but I did find great pleasure in wiggling my toes in the little bit of standing water on my front porch.

 
We didn't get as much rain or as deep of puddles as the character, Don Lockwood, did in the movie, but we got some.  It's a start.  The forecast calls for more the rest of the day and into tomorrow.  I pray God sees fit to bless us as forecasted.  We do need it.