Rain, rain, rain and a little more rain....

The first time I visited Ireland (14 years ago), the weather was unusually gorgeous for most of the thirteen days. As I recall, we had only one or two days of slight rain. People told us that we had brought the gorgeous, sunny skies with us from America.

When I first arrived, and for pretty much the first 30 days I was here, it was beautiful again. The locals were absolutely loving it. This summer has been one of the worst in recorded history, as far as rainfall. They had a miserable June, July and most of August. So, to have September and the beginning of October bring some sunshine was an extremely appreciated blessing.

About mid-October though, I am finally getting to experience the true Ireland that we have all heard about. The kind where you go to sleep with the pleasant sound of raindrops hitting the windows and rooftop. The kind where you wake up to a soft pouring of rain. The kind where you look out the window and see the sun peek through the clouds for 3 minutes and then it starts raining again. The kind where you get an entire morning of sunshine, so you walk into town feeling upbeat and dillusionally hopeful that it will last all day and then, as you begin the journey home a couple of hours later, you quickly learn that your fabulous, hooded, brown TJ Maxx coat is only water resistant...not water proof.

As I write this, I am looking out the office window at the Dreher's house to a very foreboding sky of multi-hued grays. The wind is whipping through the neighbor's tree across the street. A few puddles in the driveway are rippling against push of the wind as well. It is currently not raining, but give it a minute.

Now, I actually love rain. I find it extremely cozy and kind of inspiring, for some reason. However, I've learned something about myself. I love rain only when I have a car that I can use to get me places in spite of it. Even the greatest rain-enthusiast can become downtrodden when trapped inside all day, nearly every day.

I am choosing to enjoy it though. Mostly, because this is the authentic Irish experience I was hoping for and also because I know that I'm headed for bitter temperatures and endless snow in Wisconsin upon my return.

Off to enjoy watching the rain....took too long to post this blog and now it's started up again. Ah, Ireland. :)

Love,
Katy