Rainy Ramble

It’s been a long time since I’ve done a Ramble here on Older Eyes – Buds Blog. In case you haven’t been around here long (who has these days), a Ramble is a post I write when I want to post but have nothing in particular to say. Or sometimes … like today …when there are serious topics I don’t feel like writing about right now. It is raining here in Socal, heavy rains predicted through tomorrow. The locaL news here treats every incoming rain storm like a major event but there is some cause this year … the possibility of mudslides in areas affected by the fires last summer, including Anaheim Hills where Mr. and Mrs. Eyes live. Mandatory evacuations have been issued in nearby Corona and voluntary ones a five minute walk away from our house. We are about a block from the fire line so we will probably not be evacuated. I am sitting in my car in the park. Yes, my phone is on so I can get any evacuation news.

I love being in the park in the rain. Our park is a beautiful place, a mile and a half strip of grass, trees and lakes, but it is adjacent to the freeway. Usually the silence is broken by the groan of the tires on the freeway, a sound Jackson Browne poetically calls ominous and low in the song Sky Blue and Black. Today, all I can hear is the rain falling my car and the trees around me. Very relaxing. I finished my Morning Pages, the several pages of free from journaling recommended by Julia Cameron in The Artist’s Way. To be honest (which is part of the point of Morning Pages, you see), I should call them my Every Other Morning Pages or My Some Mornings Pages, but we’ll let that discussion go for today. I often come to the park for solitude and another thing I love about rainy days is that it is nearly empty. From my usual parking place, I would normally be able to see half a dozen cars, often one inexplicably parked a space or two from me. There would be a parade of dog walkers,

stopping to let their dogs say hello (you know how they do that, right? Sniff, sniff) while their owners loudly chat about what Woofie and Bowser have been up to lately. Yes, my Inner Curmudgeon often accompanies me to the park. Mrs. Eyes prefers that I leave him there. Anyway, I can only see one car here today and only an occasional dogless walker.

Inspired by several of those hearty souls, I decided to take a walk. I put on my favorite parka, a remnant of my marathon days when I used to run in the rain, connected my headphones to my phone and selected my Inspiration playlist. I doubt many of my inspiration songs are on many playlists. Acoustic Alchemy’s Last Flamenco? Summer Horns version of the Herb Alpert hit, Rise? How about When I Close My Eyes by the lovely Kekio Matsui.

What’s the old saying? Different Inspirations for Different Folks? Anyway, once my music was playing, I opened my umbrella (I’m not as hearty as some of those other hearty souls) and set out around the lake. People may hate the rain, but birds … especially water fowl … love it. I must have seen a million coots (in addition to me, of course).

There were dozens of ducks, including a Mandarin (who spoke perfect Mallard, by the way), and a very regal Heron. And as I rounded the lake, with

the great beat of Chicago’s Beginnings and the drumming of the rain on my umbrella filled my ears and soul, my mood lifted, causing my Inner Curmudgeon to mutter, Screw this and find a bench where he could sit by himself and sulk. And now, I’m back in my car, writing this Ramble. I can see my Inner Curmudgeon still on the bench in the pouring rain across the lake. I’m hoping he’ll stay there for a day or two but it’s not likely. Truth is, I’d miss him. But for now, I’m smiling.

Have a great day.

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Tags: birding, curmudgeonly rants, humor, nature, rambles, smiles, solitude

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