I went to bed last night to the glorious sound of rain splattering against my windows and I woke up to the same, beautiful music. I’m not sure I’ve ever been so happy to see rain. I think the fact that in blogging about my daily swims, I’m also writing about the weather each day, has me much more in tune with my local climate. The drought has moved from an abstract worry to an immediate issue that I’m tracking day by day as I describe my swims under clouds turning dark, but never raining, mornings of the barest drizzles, the relentless days of sunshine. Because of this attention, I can tell you that it’s been (at least) 85 days with barely a drop in what is supposed to be our rainy season. 

So I felt the relief of the sky finally opening up like a release in my own body, a long sigh, a celebration. It won’t be nearly enough, but it still feels so good.

Happily, I made my way to the pool today in case the rain was heavy enough to wash the detritus and contamination from the streets, into the storm drains, and out into the bay. I was determined to get to the pool on time and swim hard for the full forty-minute slot that you get at the Y in these Covid-ish times.

In fact, I pre-wrote this blog because I signed up for an evening slot and didn’t want to have to come home and write this post. Thus, if I don’t succeed in getting there on time and swimming hard for my full time slot, I will have to come back and erase this before posting. So if you are reading this, I did it.

Well, I did achieve my swimming goal, but in the hours since I wrote this post, the rain dwindled, the clouds thinned. Overall we only got .4 inches of rain here in Berkeley. Such a bummer.