Rain

The rain falls softly here, sometimes. No thunder, no lightning, no hurricanes. Just a little wind comes to whisper through the trees on the other side of the wooden fence, in the thin forest between us and the highway.

It comes down hard enough for a while to run off the roof into the rain barrel, and the sound is pleasant, like a waterfall in a cave, but no echo. Then you can't hear it at all - just a silent settling of a mist, enough to make you turn your head if you wear glasses. The trees still sway, but very slowly.

You can hear a little brook sound across the street, where the street run off goes into the gutter. All the air conditioners go silent because the rain made it cool for the day.

My favorite days are those in the winter, with gray skies, and still air, and silence, if the dogs are quiet and nobody's fighting.

But this will do until then.