Let the Heavens Open

Let the Heavens Open
Originally uploaded by shermans.

Finally, after 143 days, it rained in Scottsdale. And it didn't just drizzle. We had a steady, British-dreary, Seattle-soaked, wet that started at 1:00am Saturday and was still going strong when I went to bed about midnight. When we woke up this morning, the air was clean, the view crisp, and snow (I mean flippin' SNOW) covered the tops of the mountains in North Scottsdale. Further on toward the horizon, we could see mountains absolutely white.

Ironically, this winter rain and snow inverted our standard response to Spring weather. After 5 months of sunshine, we were giddy with the rain. It was like a 60 degree day in February back in Chicago. When I woke up, I just lay in bed and listened to the shish of cars leaving the parking lot and the steady hollow drip of the water in the downspout. Later, Ciela and I went out and splashed in puddles. Seeing the snow-capped mountains this morning was like seeing daffodils along the sidewalks. Well, not daffidols because I can't stand daffodils. They are the most simpering flower. They are the fauna equivalent of the happy face and I just want to step on them whenever they start to bloom. Seeing the snow-capped mountains was like being in Greektown in Chicago, sitting in the open windows of The 9 Muses or Artopolis Cafe.

Best of all, the rain cleared the clogged air--a buildup of carbon monoxide, smoke and most of all dust. For the last month it's been like inhaling a dirty sponge. You get a cough this winter and it stays around forever.

But now, everything's pristine. That smell of the desert--the smell that Judy and I could never quite place back in the summer--has returned. The desert has a cinnamon-y, spicy smell, especially after a rain. The brown haze had smothered it for months, but it was back today, and we inhaled deeply as we drove out to Tucson (contributing more pollution because too much of a thing like clean air can go to a person's head).