Rain Pain Brain

I was awakened by the loud drumming of rain on my roof this morning. It seems as though we’ve had an extraordinarily wet year so far and several things I am grateful for. The first was that I had my basement waterproofed. With as much rain as often as we’ve had it and the quantity that we’ve had, my basement would have gotten at least ankle deep in water. So far the collection pots, drains, and the pumps have been equal the onslaught of the rain.

The second thing I am grateful for is the roof I had replaced. The brown metal sheeting sheds the water instead of having it find weak spots to come inside my house to visit.

The word rain doesn’t say much about the type we can have. From the fine mist of a drizzle to the hard pounding of a deluge, we call it rain. We can have rain that is warm and pleasant or the treacherous freezing rain that makes even walking dangerous. Just as we have several terms for rain, the people of the far north have multiple words for the term we call snow.

When a person ages, the rain can also bring pain; the aching in the joints intensifies and reminds me I am no longer young. Old injuries and the wear of years of use now haunt me, although my doctor says there is minimal arthritic change, the pain is still there. The fall of a mobile home on my right shoulder and me falling on the same shoulder has caused pain and problems with my rotator cuff and the tendon of my right bicep.

I know many people don’t believe that the human body can predict a weather change, but I could tell that the weather change was on its way several days ago. There was no need for me to switch on the television to know rain was coming to southwest Pennsylvania. Arthritic changes have made a barometer out of my finger joints. The aches haven’t stopped me from doing the things I enjoy, but it has slowed how I do them.