Walk in the Rain

March 28, 2010.  Sunday.

Situation:  As usual work all day today – more specifically, I typically leave the house at 10 am and do not get home until between 6 and 7 pm.  The same routine happens today, except at the end of my work period, the workplace loses electricity, the result of, the reports varying, either a squirrel climbing into a transformer or a rain storm causing a generator to burst into flames.  All the way home, about 40 miles, it is raining hard.  Although it will still be light out when I get home, I anticipate that I won’t really have to take Mway out for walk.  But I like to walk in the rain and like to see spring waters gushing, so when I get home, about 6:30, even though I know my feet will get wet because of my poorly made rubber boots, I nevertheless put on my snow suit and my father’s air force safari helmet and take Mway for a walk.

State of the Path:  Amazingly the path at its start, between the outbuilding and the chicken coop (or former spring house) is relatively dry, meaning that the artesian well in the coop has not overflowed.  But after that, the path is pretty much one long puddle all the way.  Down by the wigwams, water is streaming through the maples and spilling over into bug land.  By the time I reach the creek my feet are already wet, and as I’m walking along the creek I can even feel water inside my snow suit dripping from my armpit down my side.  Some sort of birds are chirping along most of the walk, but the predominant sound all the way is that of rain falling on my helmet.  Down by bug land, as I hike along, my sticks sometimes sink a couple inches in the mud. As much as I like to walk in the rain, I don’t take either side path; it’s just down to the creek and back, and again it’s too cold for the peepers.

State of the Creek:   Despite the rain, the creek is so far staying well within its banks (Moi tells me later that it’s only been raining since about 4 pm); the water is flowing strongly; even at the log jam the water is moving.  Though the creek is not flooding, most of the path along it is one long puddle.  I try to walk in the weeds beside the path; Mway just walks straight through the water.  Water is visible in much of the high grass of bug land:  it is a chain of puddles from the upper end to the drainage area at the creek.  Where the path narrows, I’m mindful of Moi’s concern of the ground being undermined by the water, and step carefully.  At one place close to the bank of the creek, I can poke my walking stick through the ground, but only with some effort, and I don’t see any sign of the ground seriously giving way.

The Fetch:  By the time I reach the clearing, more water has seeped into my boots from passing through the area above the ridge, and water is also dripping from my other arm pit down my other side.  I toss the stick for Mway, who runs after it oblivious of how wet she might be, and I start counting, hoping indeed that Mway does not make very many fetches today.  By the time she fetches the stick a third time, I’m worried that she might hang in there for six or seven times, but I’m relieved when after the fourth fetch, she runs by me and starts down the path back to the house.