Rain, Rain, and More Rain!

This is called a "puddle". It's what happens when it rains enough that water actually accumulates on the surface of the soil, rather than soaking into the soil immediately. To the right you see some of the fall plants I haven't been able to plant out in the garden yet because it's too muddy.

San Marcos has this Christmas carnival every year along the river called The Sights and Sounds of Christmas. I've lived here for five years now, but have never gotten around to going. This year I was determined to go... and it got rained out! It got rained out in the year of the worst drought in history!

Surely the weather gods have a sense of irony. Oh well, I'll go next year. Of all the reasons to miss it this year, rain is probably the best. It's been raining almost nonstop since Friday. I've been saying "rain is the new snow." Snow is not unheard of in Central Texas, but it's rare enough that when it does snow, people all freak out. Businesses are closed, the roads are hazardous because people don't know how to drive on ice, and Facebook is littered with "Wow! Look at the snow!" posts (I admit I'm guilty of that myself). Well, now that rain has gone scarce, people are acting almost exactly the same now.

My rain barrels have been overflowing since Friday. When we get our own place, I really want to get some much bigger rain containers. These pickle barrels fill up much too quickly. Think of all the rain I could have been saving in the last few days! Oh well, at least the aquifer and lakes are being refilled. My area has been upgraded from the worst possible category of drought to only the second-worst, and our county burn ban has been lifted. I wonder how long it would have to keep raining like this to completely undo the drought. Months, perhaps? That would be interesting to know.