Rainy Days

A quick update on the next couple of weeks for Combat Snuggles. 

Next week there will not be an essay or regular weekly update. Instead, on Friday, May 24 I will be sharing the 2024 edition of the Memorial Day Rules as we head into the holiday weekend. Read ‘em, share ‘em, and please try and remember them on behalf of all the vets in your life.

This year my birthday and Memorial Day fall on the same day, so the 27th will be a weird one for me, and I am not sure at all how to process that.  As such, there won’t be any posts the last week of May. 

The newsletter will return with a new essay on June 4 and pick up with a regular-ish publishing schedule for the rest of the summer. As always, thanks for your ongoing support.

PS. If you aren’t sure what to get me for my birthday, and you haven’t become a paid subscriber, please consider signing up. While I don’t do this for the remuneration, having a solid subscriber base helps facilitate the work I do and, frankly, it just feels good to know my writing means enough to folks that people will give me actual money for it.

Photo by Kevin Wang on Unsplash

The first couple of days of this week, it rained like hell here. Tuesday in particular was bad. It sucked.

I don’t like rain. At all. I recognize its importance, and I am glad to live in a place where the complaint is that it rains too much. That’s certainly preferable to the ever present worry of drought. And. Two things can be true at the same time. I can be grateful for the rain, while at the same time actively disliking the experience of it.

I know that some people (my wife included) love the sound of rain, and the cool air that often accompanies it. They value the life it brings. I am glad that they see the positives.

I just see the constant dampness, the mud and the muck. I find myself thinking about all the things I can’t do outside and how difficult it is to start a campfire when it rains. I worry that what starts as simple rain could turn into a storm, and then a flood and then a deluge. 

For all the good it brings, rain also comes with complications and challenges.