Rain Rain Go Away

Day 5 of cold, drizzly, damp weather. And it'll get worse before it gets better, with some places here in Massachusetts predicted to get over 6" of rain tomorrow! And the forecast is for at least a 50% chance of rain over through Tuesday anyway. So it doesn't look good for the U8 soccer game tomorrow or U8 soccer practice on Monday. Luckily, we don't have U6 soccer practice scheduled for Sunday, so we can stay home and take care of Mom.

I certainly do not miss our wet basement in Weymouth. It was a very nice, little house, right across the street from a small beach on Boston Harbor and a boat launching ramp. And yes, it was swimmable, but it was an especially exciting place for our Labrador Retriever. He just loved to go swimming, fetching his street hockey ball (the only kind of toy that had any staying power - he'd rip up all the others). I'm not sure our current Lab mix, Spenser, has ever been swimming. There just aren't as many places around here for him.

But the house was at the end of a long slope and the basement would always get wet in this kind of weather. I tried a few things but nothing really helped. It never was a complete disaster, like the Great Basement Flood of 1990, where the basement in my rented duplex filled up with water when the stream across the stream got clogged. But pain enough, keeping everything up on pallets. But here in Medford, we're at the top of a nice big, rocky hill, with a finished basement. We've never had a drop of water in it (knock on wood).

I wonder how many games the Red Sox will get in against Texas this weekend. They say the Fenway field drains very well now, but it's going to be some kind of miracle if they get in a game. And I'm glad I don't have tickets for the game - yech! I'm always reminded of a Bob Newhart show where Emily asks Bob, who is peering longingly out the window at a downpour, why they can't play baseball in this weather if they can play football. He does a classic attempt at explaining it, stuttering through a few abortive explanations, before finally giving up and just saying "I don't know, they just don't."

Of course, the girls are not slowed down at all by the rain. Splashing in puddles is one of the great joys of childhood, I think, and our girls are experts at it. Basically, they just don't care about getting wet. And it is so hard in the morning, as they race about in the rain. You don't want to rain on their parade (nyuk nyuk), as it were, but you also don't want them to get soaked through either, just before heading off to school! Just another one of the little juggling acts you have to do as a parent.