Portland in the rain

[liveonearth]

It was lovely. It hasn't rained here much for a while, and people get kind of cranky when there's no rain. It's exactly the opposite of Arizona. While I was out walking, I came across a woman who was on her knees in the grass, pulling out dandelions one by one. She wasn't wearing a hat, and her hair was plastered on her forehead with drops rolling off. She smiled at me, and told me that she loves the rain, and that pulling dandelions was a good excuse to be out in it, alone, while her children were at school.

Then under the pedestrian railroad underpasses on each side of Powell, the homeless were setting up camp. When the rains start, it doesn't take long for the people to start showing up. One one side a man was cutting up a T-shirt to put on his large tan American pit bull, and another man was doing some kind of repair to his bike. On the other side two young men had just showed up and were gleefully stripping off their wet shells. Shelter of any kind from the rain can be glorious to those who have no other escape.