It’s Just a Little Bit of Rain

While some parts of the world have rainy seasons where the rain comes down hard and heavy and gets most of the annual rainfall done in a couple months, Oregon does the opposite; about two-thirds of the year is rainy (or at least overcast with the threat of rain). The rain could come down hard, but often times it’s fairly light. It drizzles. It sprinkles. It showers. [Pause.] It’s just there…constantly.

So you really have no choice but get used to the rain. Barring the summer, it probably rained yesterday and it will probably rain tomorrow. So you accept it and just shrug it off. Sure, you can always use an umbrella to shield yourself from the rain, but I admit that more often than not I don’t really even bother using one; it just seems like such a hassle to use and once you’re indoors (assuming you’re not at a location you’re spending the day at, like work), what do you do with your wet umbrella? Carry it around with you? Place it on the ground and inevitably forget it? It’s just annoying. [Sigh.] I will use my umbrella if it’s raining really hard or if I have to walk a long distance, but other than that I tend to just walk in the rain.

When I see someone using an umbrella when it’s drizzling and walking a short distance (e.g. from the parking lot to a department store) I usually think that they’re not from around here—they must be from a particularly sunny place and they haven’t built up their rain immunity yet to bear getting wet. Because walking a couple of minutes in the rain isn’t that far (and besides you’ll dry off soon enough)…it’s just a little rain.