Rain, rain, rain…
So, the greater Puget Sound area is on day 25 in a streak of rain that happens to be encroaching on the longest recorded streak of 33, set back in 1953. There are flood warnings in effect – fortunately nowhere close to us, since we live on higher ground. However, even I can see that the water in the drainage ditches in the north end is exceptionally high.
I was born in Seattle and have lived in the greater Puget Sound area all my life – except for the 3 months that I lived in Tokyo. It rains there, too, but it is generally warmer and more humid when it isn’t raining. So I am used to rain. During the Washington state centennial celebration in 1989, I was in 5th grade and we had a school concert to celebrate. We sang a song (I don’t remember the verses because soloists sang those) to which the chorus was:
Don’t come to Seattle
The sun don’t shine out here
It comes out accidentally
Maybe once or twice a year
I swear it rains so long
The moss grows on
The southern side of trees
And summer feels like winter
In that clammy ocean breeze
There is some truth to that, but we generally have really warm summers around here. It’s just that it can rain for the other nine months out of the year and any summer weekend where you need to be outdoors. In short, be prepared for rain.
This is a little on the extreme side at the moment, though. The consecutive record that we just tied was set in 1961. So it has been a while since any of us have felt this soggy.
I am trying to think of indoor things for the Munchkin to do that do not involve TV. I bought a set of Crayola Washable Markers for her to combat boredom, which she took to with great enthusiasm. Her hands were covered in pen marks, and she just scribbled away for a good half hour before bed last night.
She is wearing her NASCAR Matt Kenseth #17 ballcap and cruising around the living room on her Radio Flyer scooter. She is making me play food sandwiches and feeding me imaginary soup. So she is finding things to do – however, the novelty only lasts a half hour or so before she is clamoring to do something else. And more often than not, she’s asking for Veggie Tales or Sesame Street.
I’m willing to put her in some kind of toddler gymnastics or swimming classes – I do have some flexible babysitting available for Baby Boy now that my mother is working from home, and he takes a bottle – but I’ll take anyone’s suggestions on what to do with a 2 year old on a rainy day. Otherwise, we are going to end up at the big toys at the mall an awful lot, and that could end up being dangerously expensive. There are a lot of clearance racks at the mall right now.
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