# Rainy Days and Mondays

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Posted by LeviLovR on September 06, 2022 at 02:16:17

So if you remember The Carpenters and Karen Carpenter singing this song you are OLD!!! I remember it well so I must be pretty ancient.

Today is Monday, fourth and final day of my long holiday weekend. And it was raining, but I didn't let it get me down like the song says. Well maybe a tad because it was cold. But I was glad to see the rain because we need it desperately and it rained a nice steady rain all day long rather than the spotty showers we had been getting.

So what to do today? If it had been a nice warm rain I would have gone to the lake and sat out in it and would have swum with the rain cascading down over me. But it wasn't warm. I debated what to do. Finally I said I'll go anyway and check it out, maybe it will be a bit warmer there. It wasn't.

The weather prediction was for rain with temps in the 60s - like 64 or 65. When I left my house the thermometer in my car read 61 degrees. I thought maybe as I headed inland it would be a bit warmer. WRONG! As I drove away from my house the thermometer dropped down to 60. Then 59. Then 58 and then 57 where it finally stayed. Good grief!

So I got to the lake and pulled into the parking lot and not another soul was there. The traffic driving there was heavy, especially in the other direction, as tourists were leaving the state to go home. I got out of the car and walked out onto the dock and it was definitely chilly but no wind was blowing. I got down off the dock and actually waded out into the water a few steps. That too was cold. If it had been warm I might have actually gone in. But with both the air and water so cold it would have been too much. In my younger days I wouldn't have given it a second thought. But I can remember The Carpenters so I am no longer young. Now what?

This coming weekend is the weekend for Mudbowl in North Conway, New Hampshire. Might as well go up there and check it out and see if they had done any preperations for the games. In the old days they used this weekend for cleaning up, plowing the field, and getting things ready and organized. Sometimes they even managed to squeeze in a practice game or two. Maybe I would get lucky and run into somebody I knew. But nothing had been done - no discernable prep that I could see but it's a whole different bunch of people running things now and I wasn't all that surprised. And I didn't see anyone I knew either. So back in the car to head home.

I took the back road out of North Conway. As you cross the border from New Hampshire into Maine there is a beautiful public beach on the Saco River so I thought I would stop there and check it out. As I turned into the parking area the first thing I noticed were two enormous puddles that covered a vast portion of the parking space and numerous smaller puddles and it was still raining quite hard. The parking area is not paved and consists of dirt and grass and those puddles were intriguing to say the least.

There was another vehicle parked there as well. I got out of the car and walked down the access path to the river. The river is also running lower than usual so the beach area has become quite wide. It has beautiful sand that stretches a long ways along the river and it's a popular place during the summer. But today there were only three people standing next to the river holding umbrellas over their heads and talking. I ignored them and turned down the beach walking away from them enjoying the rain. It was still cool but by now I didn't care. When I turned to head back the people were heading back to the parking lot. The river had formed a small inlet that had created a miniature pond so I waded through that and it was over the tops of my boots. It was cold, but I went through it anyway. I just couldn't get those puddles out of my mind. As I climbed the small hill up to the parking area I could see that the three people had left but then some guy in a pick up truck drove in and then a second guy in a truck drove in right after him. Dang! I was hoping to have the place to myself. I had plans for those puddles!

Well, I thought I would check them out anyway to see if they were suitable for what I had in mind. I walked through some smaller puddles heading towards the road and the entrance into the parking area. On one side of the entrance was a large puddle and I walked into that first. It was a nice puddle, quite deep actually, but not suitable for what I had in mind. Right across the entranceway was the first huge puddle right next to the road. So I walked through it. Oh yes! Nice and deep. I crossed it, turned around and headed back through it. I was in the middle when the guy in the last truck in drove out. He stopped, rolled his window down and asked, "Where's your fishing pole?" "Don't have one," I responded. He laughed and drove away. I headed for puddle two.

Puddle two was vast - about twice the size of puddle one, a bit deeper and located in the middle of the parking lot. Again I walked through the middle of it then turned around and walked back. It was totally awesome!

I walked out of the puddle back towards my car and sat down on one of the large stones that marked the edge of the parking area and thought of our friend Ry. I knew what he would do if he was there. He would going running, taking a flying leap and dive headfirst into each of those puddles. He would slide and roll around and get totally sopped. If he had been there we could have had a blast kicking the water and splashing it up into each others faces. But Ry is young. I am old. I remember The Carpenters. No sliding and diving for me. But I could run through the puddles with water splashing up and soaking my jeans. I might slip and fall to be sure but it wouldn't be intentional. I really didn't want to get the top half of my body completely soaked because it was so cold but I had to do something. Now if the guy in the truck would just leave so I could have the place to myself. I don't know why but I just wanted privacy. So I got up and walked down by the river again, wading in a bit further to prepare myself for the coolness of the puddles. Hopefully when I got back to the parking lot he would be gone.

But he was still there. I think he knew what I was going to do. So I sat down on the stone again hoping he would go. Finally I decided I would just get up and do it anyway. And just as I was about to get up he turned on truck and instead of going around the giant puddle like he did when he came in he went straight through the middle of it, water splashing up every where. It was like he was saying to me, "Go for it, Man! Go for it!" So I did.

I went to the smaller of the two puddles first, the one closest to the road. I ran into it and water splashed up to my waist. I tried to be careful so that I wouldn't slip and fall and possibly injure myself. Success! I turned and ran back. I stopped in the middle and actually sat down, water coming up over my legs almost to my waist. I would have loved to have lain down and rolled around in it but it was so cold I just couldn't. Then on to puddle two. It was a bit slippery on the bottom, but I managed to stay upright. Once again I sat down in the middle of it and this time the water did come up to my waist totally soaking my jeans. It felt fantastic. Then back to the car where I had spread a tarp, towels and an old comforter from the bed across the seat to keep it dry as well as a couple of towels under my feet. I cranked up the heat and stopped for a cup of hot coffee on the way home. I did stop at the lake again as well. There was one truck and trailer in the parking lot. Two people were on the beach wading tentatively in the water. They did not stay long. The minute I stepped out of the car the air was too cold for me in my already wet clothes so I hopped back into the car and came home to a nice HOT shower.

OK, I may be old - but not so old I let rainy days and Mondays get me down.

Follow Ups:

- Re: Rainy Days and Mondays Mud Doggie 19:17:57 9/08/2022 (1)
  - Re: Rainy Days and Mondays LeviLovR 21:24:32 9/08/2022 (0)

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