What Drought?

I hear there is a drought that is threatening farmers who live out there to the left of me. Crops are dying. Corn stalks are earless.  Every so often I catch a glimpse of a news story about it. But here in Maine, where I wake up daily to the sound of rain and the smell of mildew and the itching of new mosquito bites I got in the night, it's hard to care. It rains here all the time. And I mean all the time. Like now, of course, since this is a time.

Maine is called "America's Vacationland," and I wonder why. My friends Patsy and Tony return each year to a lovely beach not far from where I live. They stay for a few weeks, and I always feel as if I should apologize because it's always raining when they're here, like it's my fault or something. Which it is not, but still I feel bad, like as a full-time resident I should have some sort of pull to make it stop.

The humidity in Maine is relentless. When it's winter, it turns into snow--lovely, fluffy, fun snow. Snowmen, snowballs, snowshoeing. Hot chocolate, cozy sweaters, warm socks. But in summer, when it's hot, it's just rain. It's always heavy, coming down in torrents, in sheets, in cats and dogs. The doors swell and can neither be opened nor closed. Ditto dresser drawers, kitchen cupboards and windows. Everything is sticky. Gardens rot, flowers droop under the weight of the water, mosquitoes multiply. Puddles, mud, soggy newspapers at the end of the driveway. The brain bulges with mildew and mustiness. Crispness no longer exists as a condition, affecting crackers, cereal and cotton. The wardrobe consists of yellow slickers, umbrellas and galoshes, called Wellies up here. The cats can't go out, so the litter boxes fill, and the humidity combined with that particular odor makes one consider the alternatives. Like maybe not having pets. Or moving to Arizona.

Fueling my discomfort are imbedded memories of an incredible and strange movie directed by the great Peter Weir that I saw many years ago called "The Last Wave," wherein it started raining and never stopped and the world ended that way. Great movie. (Bad ending.)