White noise

Whoosh, tap, tap, tap.

whoosh, rumble, tap, tap, tap.

There is an eerie whistling sound.

It feels like I am a kid again on the way back from the lake.  It is hot and humid and my brother and I are in Dad's truck.  Music is playing, Del Shannon is loudly blasting over the speakers as we drive down H.  Dad is singing along, we all are.  The song peaks. I'm a walkin' in the rain, tears are falling and I feel a pain...  I wa, wa, wa, wa, wonder...  There is that crazy instrumental part, I can take the bliss no more.  I stick my wet head out of the window.  My hair tangles.  In my ears, the wind is is loud and heavy as it blows.   

I am reminded of this as I sit here, blogging, unsleeping.  It is raining outside.  It is raining hard.

Whoosh, blllluuuurrrmmp.  It sounds like pebbles are hitting the glass.

Rain has the ability to take on a variety feelings.

Like shooting BBs at an aluminum can, it is exhilarating in sound and feel when it pangs metal rooftops. 

When it breaks the quiet of the night and pelts the walls of one's tent, it is soothing.

It is horrifying when it suddenly begins, while up in the mountains hiking at a high altitude.  With it, will it bring lightning?  You begin to think, am I more vulnerable here or on a golf course?  Where do I go?

It is isolating and disorienting when its direction is unidentifiable as it slams down on concrete during a torrential downpour.   I remember wondering whether it was bouncing off of the pavement or coming from the sky.  There is no other feeling like it and anyone that has ever been out on an open flight line, during a typhoon, working.

I like the rain and have attached a lot of memories to it.  However, sitting here awake on this Saturday night, so isolated, I can't help focus on a flood of memories as they whiz by.  Why does it seem so different now, in the present?  Why is it that I need white noise in order to sleep, yet I cannot sleep through the night while it violently is blown against our windows?  Will this new sound of rain be something I reminisce in the future as it takes on yet another feeling later on?  Perhaps I'll remember it differently.