I Love A Rainy Night...

No, I'm not going to launch into some Eddie Rabbitt tune (although the song does have a catchy back beat). It's just that whenever it rains, it becomes a calming influence more than anything else to me.

Time was I used to spend the occasional weekend at Grandma's & Grandpa's house way out of town (back in Philly) in a little hamlet known as Pendel, PA (the population wasn't even 1000). In many ways it was so much like being in the country...there were NO sidewalks (horrors!), and you had a a nice piece of ground (less than a 1/3 acre) about the house. Well, it WAS about 20 clicks outside the limits of Philly, and back in the 60s...that WAS nothing short of miles and miles of...miles and miles (with a farm scattered here and there). And for THIS city boy, that was pretty darn close to being out in the "boonies". Their "center city" consisted of a major intersection with route 1. That was about it. I can see why Grandpa retired up there. Even back then, he was ahead of the "curve". Not bad for a WW1 vet.

But when it rained out there, the sound of it on Grandma's patio awning was one of those sounds that lulled you off to sleep in such a way, that it was nothing short of mesmerizing. And some of you probably know exactly what I'm talking about.

No traffic noises...no shouting...no gunfire.

Nothing but rain...and maybe some thunder and lightning tossed in as a bonus. Hell, the first time I was there I had trouble getting to sleep...it was TOO quiet...LOL!

But that changes REAL fast...believe me.

Here in Fort Wayne, a rainy night can still have a similar effect, but for another reason: It keeps most ALL of those damn boomcars off of the streets. That's right...for some strange reason (known only to science, and maybe a few clandestine organizations) loud car stereos do NOT like inclement weather.

Go figure.

Maybe it's the humidity in the air that affects the speakers (which due to plastic instead of paper cones on the speakers, shouldn't be a problem), maybe the drivers see the rain as being too close to taking a bath (most of them look like they could use one), or perhaps they realize that driving in bad weather takes too much of their concentration AWAY from the tune they're blasting (they can't thump some crap music tune AND look for the police trying to catch them AND pay attention to the road all at once while smoking a doobie).

Nice to know they CAN prioritize...when absolutely necessary.
I just find it wonderful to be able to get a GOOD night's sleep for a change and not be shaken awake by the incessant thump, thump, thump of some moron with a large stereo (and a proportionately smaller-sized penis). That's right...BIG stereo..small penis. That means the ONLY thing I have to "worry" about is a home invasion at 3AM...and I can take care of that readily enough, so sleeping is a lot easier.
Then again, if people would show some RESPECT to those they DEMAND it from, we wouldn't even be having this conversation. But we can blame that on certain peoples' "culture", I suppose. Well, that and the music marketing industry (another case of other people telling YOU what YOU "NEED" in life, right?) pushing this garbage at our youth. And we wonder why they are the way they are, and what we can do to change it. Simple...get rid of this crap...once and for all. The solution is as plain as the nose on their primate faces.
Still, that nice rain coming down is something that will never get old, unlike all of us. Now, if I could only get a machine that would produce a raincloud that can FOLLOW these morons around, creating a localized downpour on THEM (like that character in the L'il Abner comics)...THAT would solve a lot of problems.

And shouldn't life be about fewer problems, rather than more?