My mind says it's a wonderful thing, more rain. Better wet than dry. My body gets tired of continuous dampness. It makes me wonder what it must feel like for people in parts of the world where monsoon means flooded streets, clothes always wet, never-ending rain, cats indoors all the time, restless and pouncing on each other.

I went around the house closing windows and doors and turned the heat on just to dry the air in here. Envelopes are sticking shut and I'm glad for the new peal-off stamps because they'd be sticking to whatever surface they're next to. It's got to the place that when I want to drive anywhere I never wait for the rain to stop. Even when it does stop, it won't be long before the rain starts again. If the fogs keep on like this into August, we're in trouble come winter. But none of the other old sayings about the weather hold true today, so why should fogs in August?

I've never seen anything like this stretch of rain we're having. There have been years in my experience of summers when I worked outside that were so wet that all my shoes were wet and stayed wet. Stepping into wet shoes every morning got old in a hurry. But I've never seen this amount of rain last so long. Still, I'd rather have it wet than dry. Dry has its problems that are a lot more difficult to live with. I figure if it gets too wet I can build an ark, but if it gets too dry I'll have to build a flying saucer to fly to a planet that has water. A flying saucer is a lot more difficult to build than an ark. I can get the materials for making an ark at Blevins. Maybe I'd better get started while the supply lasts. On second thought, the prophecy says next time will be by fire. I interpret that fire to be God's love, so all I can say to that is bring it on.

I hear the sun has solar flare activity going on right now, for whatever that means. Solar flares are a fairly significant cosmic event. They look in photographs like huge arcs of fire that appear to shoot almost as far into space as Mercury's orbit.

If it's true that there once was a planet called Vulcan that orbited the sun inside Mercury's orbit, I'd guess it got consumed by a solar flare, something like a bug flying too close to the water can get snatched out of the air by a hungry fish. My scientific guesses didn't serve me too well on exams in school, so be warned. Do not take my word for it. Vulcan most likely did not get snatched out of the sky by a solar flare, but that's another guess, isn't it. Back at square one, there may never have been a planet inside Mercury's orbit, and if there was, it's not there now. I have appointments to keep and telemarketers calling. Later for surmisings about missing planets.

It's raining here. My inability to make the correct scientific guesses to pass a chemistry test brought to mind the time Tom Pruitt had to take the driver's license test after he'd pulled out from a parking lot into the side of yet another passing car. I offered to help him study from the booklet he was given.

Nope. He didn't need help. The test would be multiple-choice and the first one is always the right answer on multiple-choice questions. Where test taking is concerned, he was dabbling in the field of my experience and I really could help him out like he could help me unwedge my chainsaw from a tree. Rather than correct him, I let him believe his folly about multiple-choice tests because he did not need a driver's license. Up in his 80s he was feeble and falling a lot. He had plenty of friends on the mountain to take him anywhere he needed or wanted to go, any time of day or night. No two ways about it. Anybody on this mountain would do anything to help Tom out in his weak years or any other time.

I was glad for him to have a chance to see that the people in his world cared. I believe that's a good experience to have in the time of assessing the value of one's earthly existence. Tom did not view his passing as an exit. For him, it was an entrance.

The leaves outside the window drip water from one to the next such that all the leaves are quivering, each one glossy wet reflecting silver-gray sky. The green world is loving all the rain. The rhododendron, mountain azaleas, dogwood, briars, what have you, flowered dramatically this year. The ground underfoot feels like walking on a wet sponge. It's a happy year for the beings with their roots in the earth. When I walk among the green things they feel so happy it's like the earth is laughing for joy.

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