Saturday, July 25, 2009

Rain Aging

I went to breakfast with my Dad this morning and a question entered my head that maybe some of my new readers, or the old ones as I don't discriminate, can help me get an answer to. We were driving in the car and my father mentioned that they got 3 inches of rain last week. Admittedly, this is a rare occurrence in my hometown so I can understand him mentioning it, however my mother in law had also thrown out the same bit of information.

It got me thinking, "Do you think that when you start monitoring the rain gauge that you have crossed into the oblivion that is being old"?

I have been giving this a lot of thought throughout the day. I personally don't own a rain gauge. I never really understood the use of actually knowing what amount of rain has fallen. The ground is wet when it rains and it is dry when it is not raining. Who cares how many inches fall?

I instantly flash back to my 75 year old grandmother who had a 3 foot tall rain gauge tied to a pole in her back yard. After it would rain she would walk outside and check to find how much had fallen. My point? She was old.

I know people go looking for the fountain of youth and others use miracle creams to fight aging but I think that I may have stumbled across the real secret. Avoid rain gauges.

That is all,

Newt

ps. In writing this post I learned I do not know how to spell gauge. I am slightly disappointed in myself.

8 Ripples in the pond:

Girl Interrupted said...

I thought it was when you start wanting overcooked cabbage with every meal and complain about modern music being "just noise"

Ps: It wouldn't be you if you spelt it correctly :P

Simon Butler said...

‘I never really understood the use of actually knowing what amount of rain has fallen.’

You’re showing your youthful naivety. It’s so you can say to your son “We had three inches of rain last week.” It provides conversation pieces, breaks the ice at parties and so on.

the girl with the pink teacup said...

Newt, I'm surprised! Fine amphibians like your good self would surely take a keen interest in rainfall, wouldn't you say?

I must be secretly old before my time. I kind of like knowing how much rain has fallen, as it's a pretty good indicator if I'm going to get out of my town and in to uni when there's heavy rainfall! I live in the subtropics and we have a LOT of rain all year round. Sometimes an extra 30mm of rain (which is really quite a lot, but not that much when you consider that we often get over 100mm in one day here) can mean the difference between floods and just a bit of extra water. The night The Boy proposed to me (22nd May), we had one of the worst floods for quite a while (I'm in the Byron Shire for the purposes of that news article...) It was very handy knowing how much rain had fallen, as it meant we could work out when the floods were going to peak.

Anyway, old-people-speak session over. Lovely post.

miss. chief said...

"RAP music? more like CRAP music" - when you say this and believe with all your heart that it's funny, that's when you're old.

i also like to know how much rain has fallen, and i have no idea why. unless it's flooding, why should i care? i'm not a farmer

Trinity said...

Simon: I guess you are right about conversation starters but I still think there are better options such as "So I went to the doctor..." or "Did you hear about..."

Tea Cup. Sorry you are old.

the girl with the pink teacup said...

Yeah, me too.

Addy's Daddy said...

I pose this question: what else are you going to occupy your time with in Midtown?

Trinity said...

I don't know what you do there but rain shouldn't be part of a national pasttime.