Today was the latest in a string of odd coincidences. Living in the desert during the third year of drought in a long string of droughts, we do not often encounter rain. I have three cars. In the last two weeks, I washed one car for the first time in at least a year. The second was taken in for routine service. The third was taken in for repair. After each newly cleaned vehicle was received, we had rain within hours. If I were the superstitious type, I might make something of this. Today, I finally started a small project I had been putting off for quite some time. I bought a quarter ton of concrete to pour a slab for the exterior unit of the heat pump system I purchased over two years ago. Given that we’ve had 3.6 inches of rain in the past 12 months, I find it grandly unfortunate that the day I chose , from among last 700 or more days, blessed us with rain.

I appreciate the rain. I only wish it weren’t so inconvenient.