Have to Love the Rain

It rains eight months out of the year here, give or take a few days. October through May are traditionally overcast and rainy with a chance of sunbursts or wind storms. To live here and thrive, one has to be cut from a different cloth. Preferably one that is water resistant. Take today or example, rain following yesterdays rain and the rain that came the day before that. Seattle isn't even the rainiest city in the States, but when people think rain they think Seattle. I maintain that this is because it has such a mild overall climate, the days in a year were the temperature is above 90 degrees Fahrenheit or below 30 can usually be counted using just ones fingers. Unorthodox use of measurement I know, the scientist in me is crying, fingers as a form of measurement would never hold up against my peers.

It's part of Seattleite culture, when someone brings up the weather anytime between labor day and memorial day the appropriate response is "yeah I think I'm evolving webbed feet." Every Washingtonian on the west side of the mountains owns rain boots, but not necessarily umbrellas. The out-of-towners are easily distinguished by their umbrellas and normal jackets. Seattleites are identified by their Marmots, Arc'teryxs, Patagonias, and North Faces. The thing about those that live in the greater Eastside is they don't own umbrellas, after the third or fourth umbrella being turned inside out by the winds they went out and bought a top of the line rain jacket instead.

Yet even with Rain boots and a top of the line rain jacket, they have to be borderline masochistic or just kind of love the rain. I like to think I fall in the later group. It maybe that I was born and raised here. Went to to college here. Never really been anywhere else. But I still kind of love it here. I can forgive the rain because it creates such a green lush world around me. I can forgive the clouds because they keep my "fashionably pale" skin from burning. I can forgive the wind storms, because how could I truly appreciate a warm wood fire without the power being out in December or the wind pelting rain against the house. Without the rain there would be no puddles to go puddle jumping in there would  be no flooding, which subsequently means for me no kayaking off the back porch.

I'm not chronically depressed, I'm not an alcoholic, a masochist or deranged in anyway, I just kind of love the rain. The way it makes the air smell fresh and clean. The way it facilitates the growth of everything lush and green. It's created an entire culture. Seattle rain and cup of joe go hand in hand. No one in their right mind would try and start a coffee empire in southern Florida. Who would want a nice warm macchiato or a shot in the dark on a balmy 90 degree day? Seattle rain has created and refined an entire coffee/tea drinking culture, one that births a global enterprise and small entrepreneurial ventures everywhere. From small ventures such as North Bend Coffee Roasters to larger corporations such as Seattles Best, Tully's and Starbucks. Seattle isn't the rainy city it's the coffee city, and even a non coffee drinking tea lover like myself appreciates that.