TheBanyanTree: December Rain

[nancyiee at aol.com]

I toyed with the idea of buying an inflatable snowman.  Only because  there 
will never be enough snow here to make a real one, or cool enough to keep  
it. But, I will not. I don't know why it has to snow for Christmas, since I  
doubt it snowed on the first one. I don't know; does it snow in Bethleham 
in  December?
 
It rained last night. I woke in the middle of the night to a great crashing 
 and metallic clanging and banging. The dogs woke and started their frantic 
 barking "stranger stranger stranger stranger."
 
I climbed out of bed and turned on a light or two. I peeked out the front  
door. No one, nothing, quiet, except for the rain pounding the sidewalk.   
Three a.m.. I close the door, shush the dogs, and start back to bed.  Oh,  
crap. did I turn off the water hose into the stock tank for the horses that i  
started during evening chores?
 
I go to the back and look out. Of course I can't see out there in this  
black rain. I don a plastic bag (yes, a regular plastic grocery bag over my  
hair) shove my feet into my barn tennies, and head out.  Pouring rain. I am  
soaked in an instant. Lightning streaks across the sky. I duck, as though 
that  would save me from getting fried.
 
Rather than undo the gate and wrestle with it in the dark, I flip myself  
over the fence. The wood fence, of course, is wet, and now I have a sopping  
crotch to my pajamas. I scare the horses, who have sheltered in the open 
shed.  They run out into the rain. Nice.
 
I muck through the pooling water to the hose and the stock tank.  It's  
off. No water running over, draining the well. 
 
The horses are out in the pouring rain, watching me. I climb back over the  
fence and wade through tall grass to the house.  On my way back I find the  
reason for the clanging and banging. The pole full of wind chimes had 
fallen in  the wind. I'll not deal with it now. I am soaked clear through and 
have to dry  and change once inside.  Three-thirty.
 
I'm awake now.  Three -thirty and there is no way I can get back to  sleep. 
I turn on the telly and start a stupid movie, and fall asleep fifteen on  
the sofa minutes into it.
 
And, there I still am in the morning.
 
It's still raining.