A Shower to Remember

Tonight, I had a shower in the rain. A shower of Atlantic Ocean rain with drops so thick and wet that I raised my head to the sky in a smile and soaked them deep within. I was walking, looking for a clothesline, when it started. Looking for a clothesline and pins to raise a clothesline consciousness, although they would also be useful, I though, for drying the dripping clothes I am wearing. I had forgotten about the East Coast rain. Forgotten, sitting in Philly staring out the window as the streets filled with that special wetness only cities magnify in the contrast they create with cement and cars and buses and lots of people, all running from the rain. Tonight, I ran, walked, skipped through the thickest of the downpour. Talked with others hiding under awnings, before darting back out and across, leaping over small river like drains. Then it stopped, the rain, but still, no clothespins, even after store number two, and so I got to walk, much further, through neighborhoods with yards with flowers I know like queen anne's lace, and black eyed susan's, and hyacinths, and echinacea, and plants I used to know, but could only recognize by sight and no longer name since they do not inhabit the West. And since the rain had stopped, I had the rare treat of seeing fireflies. Magical fairy bugs which I wish I could catch in jars with my children, but have yet to see even one in Idaho. And then, even though I have not yet peered up at the monument, stared into the reflecting pool, or paid tribute to Lincoln, right in this neighborhood there was a civil war cemetery with pillars, and wooden planks and cannons. And I thought, wow, wouldn't it be cool to have so much history right in your neighborhood. And then I remembered that their is a Native American burial ground two blocks from my own home, at the base of castlerock, and that was a neat epiphany, the way we do have a hidden history in our neighborhood too. But two more stores, and no clotheslines or pins...which is my point I guess. They should be available at all grocery and pharmacy stores. They should not be hard to find, and so it was a good unscientific survey, which will help me make my point. My clothes were dry by the time I walked back to my room anyways, and I can still smell the rain. I love being in the rain when it is so warm that the water leaves no chill.