“Rain, rain, go away” is a sentiment that you hear around Ohio a lot these days.  June in Ohio has been one of the rainiest on record.  If you are near the Cleveland area, it is the 3rd rainiest June since 1871 when records began to be kept, more than 5 inches above normal.  Akron is having the 7th rainiest June.  There have not been two consecutive days where it hasn’t rained in Akron or Cleveland this entire month.  And these totals don’t include today, the last day of June, when rain poured down in scattered thunderstorms.

Ohio is green and lush and starting to resemble a rain forest.  I don’t like to complain about the rain.  After all, the people in the west are still in severe drought.  If you look at the drought map, Ohio appears to be only one of eight states that doesn’t have some area that is abnormally dry.  But the fields with crops that were growing so well are getting flooded and some of the beans and corn are starting to rot.  So I guess I would revise the childhood rhyme to say, “Rain, rain, go to California!”

When Tom and I agreed to go to Death Valley last winter, I was a little concerned about whether I would get tired of sunshine.  In northeast Ohio, I had plenty of days I was tired of snow, tired of rain, or just tired of the constant cloud cover.  It only rained three days during the four months we were in Death Valley.  Did I get sick of the sunshine?  Ha ha ha ha ha (raucous laughter)!  No, I did not.

Of course, Tom and I usually bring rain wherever we go.  Since we left Death Valley at the end of April, we have experienced rain almost every day, no matter where we were.  Sometimes I think that if an area wanted their drought to end, we should move there.  We are moving on to New England next week, an area that is abnormally dry or in moderate drought.  Maybe we can fix that by taking some rain from Ohio.

In the meantime, we carry on through the rain.  We have started ignoring drizzle or light rain.  Rain?  What rain?  You call this rain?  If it isn’t flooding the streets or sewers, it isn’t enough rain to stop us from doing anything.  We do have one concern, however.  While Tom was in Tennessee last week, he lost his rain gear.  We must get it replaced right away.  It will probably stop raining as soon as we do.