Afternoon rain

I was on the sofa with my back to the three large windows in the living room finishing a copy of Time

when I noticed the pages were getting a little darker. I am acutely sensitive to this since cataract surgery on both eyes during the last month. I finished reading the interview with the female CEO of GM on the last page, closed the magazine, and initialed the front cover as my sign I have finished it. This was a signal to my late wife she could throw the magazine in the recyclable box when she straightened up the coffee table in front of the three-seat leather sofa. My wife died last August but old habits die hard, 

I took up the Book Review section from Sunday’s Times (June 12, 2016) and that was when I heard the first patter of rain. I got up, turned around and looked out the window. A hatless man, dressed in shorts and sport shirt, hurried by on the walking path parallel to the golf course dragging his golf bag on a two wheel cart behind him. I walked to a glass door in the dining room but the rain was hitting it directly and it obscured the view. 

I went from the back of the house to the front. Rain was hitting the road and bouncing into the air. It was soaking the front lawn throughly. For several days I’ve been fighting the lawn sprinkler control box to regulate watering the lawns in front and back. The box was, alas, beyond me. I enlisted the aid of a neighbor and after a couple of trial and error efforts she succeeded. The water now comes on in the morning around 5:30, first in the front and then in the back yard. The lawns will be watered tomorrow by the sprinklers despite today’s rain. This might be wasteful but I will not alter the operation of the control box. Off in the distance I hear thunder rumbling. It is just barely raining at present at my house and the sky is clearing and it is becoming brighter. Perhaps this was all just a late afternoon summer shower we can expect in South Carolina along the coast.  I can see drops hitting small puddles on the street. It is getting brighter, the sky is clearing. The thunder is further and further away. My neighbor and her young daughter are walking their dogs in front of the house.

Back to the Book Review section of Sunday’s Times. 

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