We’ve had quite a few rainy days here in Kaneohe lately, and there’s only really so long we can stay inside or go to the mall’s indoor playground, which on rainy days makes me want to scream and run the other direction, except for the fact that ALL THE CHILDREN are already doing exactly that thing, so it wouldn’t really be remarked upon by anyone.
So on afternoons when there’s nothing else to do, and when we know we’ll have baths later anyway, we leave the dog inside and we go outside. (We’d take the dog too if she didn’t slink along beside us like we’ve forgotten all about her happiness and why would we ever take her out to a place where even the sky cries.) So we go outside alone except with our boots and stomp through puddles, because we’ve done all the things inside and there’s just nothing left to do.
So we did that the other day, and thanked the camera company for making a water proof camera and thanked Joe for taking pictures of me with the boys for once. He used to be the photographer in our family, but somehow, through no fault of my own, it became me. (Except for maybe the fact I started back seat photographing more and more. “Take a picture of that. No, it’ll be better from your knees. Did you catch how that sunbeam hit the rock and changed it to a different color? No, not that rock!!!” Probably we’re lucky he was ever a photographer with me around at all.)
Anyway, even with rain boots and puddles and rain drops down our faces, no one wanted to just run around in the rain except me. Instead what they wanted to do was play in the mud, and play with their toys. (I assume playing with trucks and motorcycles in the rain is a completely different experience than playing with them in the sunlight. I know this only from observation.)
But every once in a while they walked around with me and tried to run down Daddy and tried to steal the camera which may be water proof, but I really draw the line at seeing if it is bury-in-the-mud-and-stomp-on-it proof. (This is why we can’t have nice things.)
And then when we came back in I really thought we had gotten all the people in the tub before the mud transferred to our house, but it turns out we didn’t really do that at all and our bathroom still bears the scars. (Feel a little sorry for it. It doesn’t get cleaned that often. Or feel sorry for me. Whichever.)
The point to this long and possibly uninteresting story, is that sometimes playing in the rain makes all the same things like trucks or walking become something different. Like maybe if you hate walking but you walk in the rain it’s not as bad. (Mina has yet to learn this lesson.) Or maybe if pay the bills while listening to a new song, you can at least dance while doing it. Or working the same job on a new continent, or making that terrible phone call with a new hair style. (I went extra big and extra small, so you can pick which one feels the most comfortable.)
So don’t be my dog, who had no idea that if she’d stayed with us in the rain she could have played in puddles and slid in the mud. And if there’s that one (or three or ten) things you can’t get done, just eat a different flavor ice cream while you do it.
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