Walking in the Rain

I apparently got more than enough sleep over the weekend because last night I seemed to toss and turn and when the 1st alarm went off at 4:10am this morning, I was already wide awake. Lots of rain and wind and thunder and lightning last night. I don't mind that weather when it's warm and last night and this morning it was.

Since I was already awake and not at all tired, I got myself up and dressed for one of my morning walks...the hood is actually quite peaceful and beautiful at that hour of the day! Pleasant change from different times.

I grabbed my headphones and went out the door by 4:20...pounding the pavement, anticipating the 2.5 miles I was going to encounter. It felt good out and I even pushed up the sleeves on my sweatshirt. 

As I rounded North Bend and around towards Belmont, I saw 2 deer crossing the street...a surprisingly common occurrence in this city, yet, many don't ever experience it because they're too busy doing other things...like sleeping!  A few steps later, I looked in the front yard of the house I was passing...drawn by a flicker of movement in the grass. As my eyes focused in on it, I realized it was a rather large bunny enjoying the warmer morning and wet grass. I love witnessing nature like this inside the city limits...totally made the walk worth it.

As I got further along on my loop through the neighborhood, it started sprinkling....it was warm so I didn't mind, it felt kind of good. By the time I was about 3/4ths of the way through my walk, the heavens, however opened up! Rain floating and sheets across the sidewalk and streets in waves as the wind whipped. There was a bit of thunder and lightning and I even saw a few sparks from a transformer up on an electrical pole from the wind...but there was no turning back I was too far into the walk to turn back and there was really no "shortcut" back home at that point, so I put my glasses in my pocket, pulled the hood on my sweatshirt up and just kept plugging away...I'm just glad that it was warm enough that I was not freezing as I was getting thoroughly drenched as I walked home. 

When I got to the house, I took my shoes and socks off while sitting on the porch since they were wringing wet from walking through the mini-rivers of muddy water that was rapidly flowing down and around the streets and sidewalks in my hilly neighborhood. I dropped my shoes by the first heating vent I passed on my way to the back of the house to the laundry room to immediately channel all of my clothes directly into the washer before going upstairs to take a nice, hot shower and get ready for work.


Despite the sheer randomness...and the fact that the tornado warning sirens went off--which I thought were for severe weather, not actually a tornado warning--it was actually a nice, relaxing and invigorating way to start the day. I need to get back in that habit and do that more often...I miss that during the cold months....