Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

This country desperately needs a functioning Fourth Estate.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

Nikki Haley, who can’t acknowledge ‘slavery’, is a pathetic shill.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you don’t.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

I am pretty sure Katy Tur wasn’t always such a bootlicking sycophant.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

“Let’s not pretend [Trump] wants to engage in high-minded discourse.”

It’s a doggy dog world.

Joe Biden can go out like FDR, not by dying in office, but by crushing the fascists.

Republicans don’t trust women.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / It’s Raining Again

It’s Raining Again

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I don’t know about you all, but West Virginia is basically a tropical climate this summer. For about five years in the late 90’s I used to go to this conference every December in Puerto Rico called SCAPRA (Speech Communication Association of Puerto Rico), and what cracked me up was how casual every one was every day. Fast food was a relative term, and I began to understand island time. I joked about it with my advisor, Jim (who was about 65 and my travel mate for every conference and off-campus teaching bit), and he laughed and said “Of course they move slow. Every day is exactly the same. The only thing in question is when it will rain for twenty minutes before the sun comes back out. It’s hard to have a sense of urgency when you know tomorrow will be just like today.”

I always thought that was a funny and pithy remark. At any rate, that is what it has been like here this summer. It has rained every single day, and the only thing in doubt is when it will rain. I’ve only had to run the sprinklers twice this year for the garden.

I think there is a relationship between the amount of rain we are having and the resurgence of fireflies and bats (who have been amazing this year- I hd four or five over my head last night.).

Reader Interactions

52Comments

  1. 1.

    PsiFighter37

    Plane is late going to Palm Beach. Plan is to catch some sun, relax, and not think about work at all for a few days.

  2. 2.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    Summer is about the only season where the weather is reliable in WV.

    I still remember days when it snowed in the morning and turned 65 in the afternoon.

  3. 3.

    Uncle Ebeneezer

    Damn, I thought I was the only person who remembered this Supertramp tune. I think it was on Friday Night Videos.

  5. 5.

    srv

    The five members of Supertramp make cameo appearances in the video. At the beginning, John Helliwell is a street musician playing an alto saxophone. Before the first chorus, Dougie Thomson appears as the bus driver (this was the last filmed video where Thomson would appear with his then trademark moustache and beard). Hodgson plays a guitar-playing bus passenger. Lastly, Rick Davies and Bob Siebenberg play the two pickup truck rednecks.

  6. 6.

    Southern Beale

    We sure could use some rain at my house. It’s rained in Nashville, just not in my neighborhood. We haven’t seen a drop of rain in a month. My rain barrels are empty and my grass is dying.

    We’re supposed to get rain tomorrow but frankly I’ve heard that before.

  8. 8.

    Southern Beale

    Every time I hear Supertramp I think of this friend of mine from way way back, we worked together and had to drive about an hour to the printer’s every week and we got to be good friends. “Breakfast in America” was a staple on the tape deck.

    Years later after we’d both moved on to other work places and no longer were in touch I found out he had become a big Limbaugh-loving right wing asshole.

    Sad.

  10. 10.

    Gordon, the Big Express Engine

    So Obummer spends 100mm to take his family on an African vacation and then cancels fireworks for the troops? WTF?

  11. 11.

    Spaghetti Lee

    Chicago’s been cold and rainy so far. Not good for the swimming pool store where I work. I think Tuesday night when I left in the evening it was about 58 degrees. Supposed to start warming up though.

  12. 12.

    Southern Beale

    I know the economy is getting better because a friend of mine just quit her new job after 3 months because her boss is a psycho asshole. We’re not gonna take it …

  16. 16.

    daverave

    100+ in Sactown again today and tomorrow (and semi-humid, also, too), maybe high 90s on Friday for our relief… just shoot me.

  18. 18.

    sal

    Please send some to Texas. Forecasts that start out 80% rain turn out to be 108 and dry. Maybe the state deserves a flicker of hell, but not all of us are like the politicians here. Seriously, the weather people here talk about whether Aleutians fronts will affect us. We need help.

  19. 19.

    Mnemosyne

    I stupidly tried to go to work this morning even though I had three separate migraine triggers going on (hormonal, weather change, and sinus infection). I lasted about a hour before I had to go home again and spend the rest of the day laying in bed with a sleep mask on. Which now means I have to go in for at least a couple of hours on Friday, which I was hoping to take as a vacation day. Ugh.

    Not quite sure what we’re doing for the Fourth yet. My niece and nephew are at their mom’s and it’s the one-year anniversary of my father-in-law’s death, so we may stay home and make turkey burgers instead of trying to go to my brother’s place.

  20. 20.

    muddy

    @PeakVT: I’m in the part where the mosquitos are the worst in the state and the EEE now. I found black mold on the inside of the windowsills today it’s so wet. My yard may as well be a rice paddy. Luckily my raised bed for veg is 2′ tall.

  21. 21.

    SiubhanDuinne

    There’s enough rain in metro Atlanta that my fingers and toes are beginning to web.

    @John Cole: I’m thrilled to know you have bats! I have recently become a huge fan of various bat rescue organizations around the world (especially Australia, and especially Queensland, where there appears to be a conservativeprivilegeddon’tgiveafuck attitude toward the environment and pest control and trees and stuff.

  22. 22.

    Southern Beale

    Ah, well:

    It is true that some of the U.S. military bases which typically stage larger July 4 shows have cut back or canceled their 4th of July celebrations, but those bases individually chose to do so due to budgetary constraints, not because President Obama directed all U.S. bases to skip celebrating Independence Day this year to “save money.”

    The mandatory $85 billion budget cut imposed by sequestration as of March 2013 — an outcome for which Congress and the Presdient share some measure of blame due to their inability to resolve deficit reduction issues — has affected many federal departments, including the military. Therefore, some U.S. military bases have had to make the choice of scrapping annual fireworks shows (which can cost upwards of $100,000) or other Indepedendence Day events in order to allocate funds to more vital areas.

  23. 23.

    Southern Beale

    I have just had the horrifying realization that one of my dogs has been snapping up the baby birds flapping around on the ground trying to learn to fly.

    The horror.

  24. 24.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mnemosyne:

    I remembered that it was last summer that your FIL died. Had forgotten that it was Independence Day weekend.

  26. 26.

    Mnemosyne

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    It was actually on Independence Day, which we all thought he probably would have kind of liked since he was a history buff. Same day as John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, yo!

    Tomorrow will be our annual viewing of 1776, the one and only musical about the signing of the Declaration of Independence. They’re showing it tonight at the American Cinematheque’s theater in Santa Monica, but there was no way we were going to be able to fight the traffic to get there on time, so it’s a home viewing instead.

  28. 28.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mnemosyne: Love the movie, although I don’t have an annual ritual viewing as you do.

    As for your FIL, “they” say — and I agree — that the first year is always the most challenging. The first Thanksgiving, anniversary, birthday, kid’s birthday, can be tough to get through. By the time you get to the Jahrzeit, it’s kind of a relief to know you’re done with the worst of the emotions and can start to reclaim your own life.

  29. 29.

    KmCO

    The Front Range has gotten a lovely rainstorm this afternoon. Earlier in the day I was up at about 10,500′ and watched with some fellow onlookers in the shelter of a campground as a storm blew right over us.

  35. 35.

    Botsplainer

    The puppy didn’t soil the crate while we were out to see the Lone Ranger. He came straight out and peed in the yard!

  37. 37.

    Lavocat

    Feels like a fucking bayou here in Upstate NY. We’ve had rain almost everyday since about June 1st. And it’s really weird as it comes in waves. Sometimes, just a sun shower. Other times, truly severe weather with scary bursts of lightning.

    Noticed that some climate change modeling is predicting longer, wetter, more humid summers for the Northeast in general, from West Virginia to the Canadian Maritimes.

    My guess is that West Nile Virus, Lyme, and EEE (Eastern Equine Encephalitis) is going to kick up a notch this year.

    And if it gets any more humid, I’m gonna buy me a banjo and a corncob pipe, kick back, and spit some tobacky.

  38. 38.

    gogol's wife

    Here’s a concert with Anna Netrebko and Dmitri Hvorostovsky in Red Square this June. About 50 minutes in she does a great “La mamma morta.” Otherwise it’s too much Verdi for my taste, and by the time they get to Eugene Onegin they’re kind of tired. But Moscow looks beautiful! (Lots of creeps in the audience like Pozner.)

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMS5NGRFfQE

  40. 40.

    Commenting at Balloon Juice Since 1937

    ‘Dancing in the Streets’ from the Dead, May ’77, is my summer song today. Lots o’ rain and humidity but comfy.

  43. 43.

    A Ghost To Most

    @KmCO:

    Not in Golden. We got about three drops of rain. And some moron nearby is shooting off fireworks.

  44. 44.

    muddy

    @raven: I knew an oil guy when I was overseas who described himself as coon-ass. From bayou country in Louisiana. He told a lot of jokes about Pierre and Marie.

  46. 46.

    Redshirt

    @Southern Beale:

    In other news, I’m trying to watch “Oz The Great And Powerful” on the DVD but I’m just not feeling it.

    Same. I wanted to like it, as I love the source material, but it felt like a paint by numbers Hollywood money grab. Without soul.

    That said, it wasn’t atrocious. 4/10

  47. 47.

    Pogonip

    We just got back from fireworks in Boehnerland (southwest Ohio). Maximal mosquitoes, minimal fireflies this year.

  50. 50.

    Ruckus

    @efgoldman:
    I think we have the same neighbors. If the fireworks don’t get them maybe the cross country commute between homes will. In the last two weeks we have had about 20 fireworks going off every night. And…. Someone fired off a shotgun. I know this because of experience and the sound shot makes going through bushes. And of course very early this morning(or late last night depending on your schedule) someone within 2 or 3 houses fired off 6 rounds that sounded like a 38. Life as a target on a shooting range isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

  51. 51.

    Bob h

    I used to go to Florida for work, and my NJ Summer climate is now exactly the same: intense humidity followed by afternoon T-storm.

  52. 52.

    ThresherK

    It’s hard to have a sense of urgency when you know tomorrow will be just like today.

    They say one can tell when Easterners go to San Diego for a spell, because the visitors have that sense of “let’s do something this day, before the weather turns” and the residents know the weather will be that nice for weeks.

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