RAIN: The ennui, the comfort, the snake, the chipmunk

During my early college years, I had a summer job at a community swimming pool in the leafy Philadelphia suburbs. The tiny community had a lot of generations of families in its history-- and my father, like my mother, had grown up under the same trees and in the same pool before me. In fact my father had been the lifeguard in his young years, and my mother's folks were instrumental in the design and building of the pretty pool set in a sort of magical glade tucked in a green valley.

On days like today (rainy and overcast) the pool would stay empty, except maybe for a stalwart young boy or two who would shiver on the edge of the pool, knee caps blue with cold, playing "pee wee" (diving for a stone thrown in over one's shoulder). When a rumble of thunder came, I was duty-bound to send the kids home, for safety's sake, and I was free to take myself into a small building that served as an office and supplies shelter where I could while the day away playing solitaire.

With the canopy of tall trees overhead, it is amazingly dark on days like this. I sense a familiar ennui in the white noise of the rain falling down, the watery veil dropping ceaselessly before my eyes. There's a comfort, too, in it-- knowing that nothing is happening outside that needs my attention right now, and I am "on my own." Too many of these days together is just dreary, but once in a while a rainy day is a great relief. Things are being washed outside-- the dust is run into the cracks and the stones in the pavement are glazed and colorful.

When I go out this afternoon it will be steamy in the sun. I will re-think whether I really want to rake in this humidity. Maybe I'll wait until early tomorrow morning. Maybe pull some weeds while the earth is still soft with rain.

I wonder for maybe the fifth time today what the little chipmunk does when it rains. I saw him (first chipmunk sighted for a year or so) come out of a pile of leaves in the woods when I was watering privet starts yesterday. Where does he live? Is he aware of the large rat snake that comes around these woods? And where does the rat snake live?

We met this snake two or three summers ago when it got stuck in the bird netting protecting our blueberries from avian raiders. I guess it was after the birds-- not the berries. But it was really very large, and I found out rat snakes can be really nasty when cornered. And they like to eat rat-like creatures.

The two of us freed its head from the snarl of plastic netting with some determination and a fair bit of squeamishness. I got to hold the 8-10 foot body while my husband snipped the netting from around the head. The snake has, as my husband predicted, kept to himself like a gentleman ever since, but I always inspect largish holes in the ground in the woods just in case I might need to avoid something in the leaves. I am guessing he is watching me with pretty much the same caution.

I hope the chipmunk has a safe place in this rain, and that it is not the same safe place the snake has chosen.

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