I truly never thought this would happen. But it has: I am SICK of this rain. Up till now, I’ve loved it. Very dramatic, soothing, love the sound. Plus, up till now, it’s been sunny in the morning, raining in the afternoon, clear at night. I mean, I knew the worst was yet to come, that October and November are the rainiest months by far. What I didn’t know was that not only does it rain more – and I didn’t think there could be a "more" when it comes to this rain – the past few days, it rains all day and all night. Come ON. Alright already. "Green season" my ass. It couldn’t possibly be raining anywhere else in the world: it’s all HERE.

I think I mentioned about how our house was built: a cement box on top of a cement box filled with dirt. Which is now also filled with water. Cement, as you may or may not know, is like a sponge. It soaks up water. Plenty around for that. How cement holds its structural integrity is beyond me. Magic, I guess.

By the way, the house is uphill from the septic so despite all my drama on the subject, we are safe from that. Turns out, gravity works everywhere. I was worried it was spending all its energy on my body.

Despite all the rain, somehow our house is not mildew-y or smelly. That’s gotta be magic. Along with our high ceilings and tons o’ windows, lots of sunlight. When there IS sunlight… ahem. The closets get smelly when the doors are shut. So, duh, I took the doors off. And the inside of the cabinets can be smelly, too. We have tons of beautiful built-in wood cabinets in our bedrooms. Haven’t the heart to take the doors off there yet, but if the mildew smell gets any stronger, I’ll at least prop them open.

During our first rainy season, before we had TV and read a lot, Hal found a list of idioms referring to all the different "types" of rainfall here. We can’t find that list, but Jorge, our Spanish teacher, was just here. I grilled him and here’s what he remembers off the top of his head:

  • Pelo de gato [PAY-low, hair; day, of; GAH-toe, cat: a light misting rain. How they got from cat hair to light rain is another mystery.]
  • Aguacero [ah-gwa-SER-oh, very heavy rain]
  • Lluvia torencial [JEW-vee-ah, rain and toe-rinse-ee-AL, torrential]
  • Mojazón [mow-ha-ZHONE*, everything is wet]
  • Goterones [go-tear-OWN-ace, a few big drops, getting ready to really rain: Jorge held out his hand as if feeling a few drops and looked skyward]
  • Cayeron sapos y culebras [kah-JAIR-own, they fall; SAH-poce, frogs; eee, and; koo-LAY-bras, snakes: falling frogs and snakes or raining frogs and snakes, like our raining cats and dogs]
  • Están moviendo los muebles [eh-STAHN, they are; mow-vee-IN-doe, moving; lowce, the; MWAY-blace, furniture: when there is lots of thunder, they say that St Peter is moving the furniture]

Yeah, it’s a little late to come up with all these cute names for something I am sick to death of. Good thing we’re all cozy in our house, ’cause you want to nap all the time. A little sunshine would be nice. Gosh, only two more months to wait… I may have to go to Jen’s house and torture her until she gives me the name of that beach she’s all braggin’ about. I could do with a day at the beach. Only two hours away. Isn’t that handy? Ok, I’ll live with rain if that’s what it takes to live in Costa Rica.

Is it my imagination, or did it just start raining harder?

*Zs are pronounced more or less like Ss. Not quite teeth together sissy S, but not a hard buzzing Z either. More S than Z. Muy elegante…


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