rainy morning ponderings, part 1

got onto a bus with available seats this morning for a change. sat down next to a girl who was wearing a shit-ton of perfume. turn my head to the right, perfume cloud; to the left, an odor remeniscent of a lavatory. the rain was heavier yesterday. i'm not saying yesterday's rain was severe, but today's drizzle was... less so.



i've heard that eskimos have, like, thousands of words for all the different types of snow they recognize. all the different heavinesses, wetnesses, shades and strengths and what have you. i wonder if portlanders have a similar number of words for the different types of rain. i wonder if portlanders would even call this morning's rain, "rain." it wasn't much, but it speckled my spectacles...

i know of drizzle, which indicates small droplets that sort of float down the atmosphere, blanketing the air somewhat. and i know of torrential downpours of large drops beating down, soaking passersby to the core. i huddled in my office one lunch hour while the rain came down in torrents. then i picked up an umbrella on my way out for the day to what i considered drizzle. i never used my umbrella, but found that it was doing something more than just drizzling. during my walk i got gradually soaked. it wasn't really drizzle, nor was it torrential. with my limited rain-vocabulary, i've decided it could only be one thing: "to-rrizzle"! er, fo' shizzle...

and the beat goes on like rain on a metal awning.