I was just sitting here listening to it rain. The rain was coming down hard earlier, but later settled to a steady strum.

Suddenly, the thought came to mind that perhaps I left the windows down in the truck.

As I fled outside in the unexpected downpour, the shockingly cool water droplets striking my back and arms and instantly wetting my hair, I saw that my first thought was correct.

Both windows were all the way down and the rain, which was coming in from the passenger side of my truck, had pretty well reached the entire interior of the cab.

On the bright side, the driver’s side was still mostly dry and I had a blanket over the passenger side seat from an earlier incident involving a bucket of my honey. They just don’t make those lids fit as tightly as they should.

After trying to get the keys out of my pocket for what seemed like a minute with the rain pouring through the open window, I finally managed to get them out and shove the correct one in the ignition. Power windows do have advantages, but that isn’t one of them. Soon the cab was sealed from the outside forces and I noticed that an envelope I was supposed to mail had been laying on the passenger side seat, damp but not soaked through.

Nearly out of breath, I decided to just sit there for a few moments and watch the rain strike the windows as my breathing and the moisture and heat inside the truck fogged up the front windshield so slowly that it hardly seemed to be progressing. It was actually nice to take a few moments of silence in the middle of the day to listen to the rain. Soon the rain slackened and I headed back inside.

It seems that my days are often like that, putting out ‘fires’ like the windows down in the rain and seldom taking time to reflect on what I am doing or why I am doing it.

I had a friend ask me last week to try and write about something interesting this week. I must say he may be disappointed again.

“You’re getting a little boring lately,” he said about the column. “I just write about what happens to me,” I told him. “I can’t make things up that haven’t happened.”

“So write about someone else for awhile until your life gets more interesting,” he said with a laugh. It was all good-natured ribbing I’m sure, but it struck a point that I have been making to myself for sometime.

I suppose I first thought about it when another columnist decided to stop writing. Maybe it’s getting near time for me to give up the weekly rambling and let someone else have some space to share their life or experience, I thought.

I don’t ever really get bored with writing. It is one of my principal passions, one of only a few outlets for my creative energies. I’m not quite ready to say goodbye, I’m just saying that the thought has crossed my mind more often recently.

Ideas like that are like the tides, sometimes they rise and sometimes they ebb. I don’t think it’s necessarily the fact that I haven’t been able to do the things I wanted to write about; rather, I feel like I seldom have the amount of time lately that I would like to spend writing every week. I like to take several hours to write and then later re-write a column, but lately this hasn’t been happening.

This year has been passing in a blur. I looked at my calender recently and noticed that I have had two days without work-related activities since the Fourth of July holiday. One of those two days was spent recreating and the other was spent working on my property.

Of course, this week is no time to be tired. It’s time for the Alleghany County Fair.

As a volunteer for the fair committee, I get to see a lot of the work that goes on behind the scenes to make the events of this week happen. I must say that there are a lot of hard working people out there who spend their time bringing the events to the county.

I had the opportunity to watch the demolition derby Saturday night and, Lord willing, I will be at a number of fair events between the beginning and the end this week. The derby lacked little in excitement this year, from the smashing of cars to the controversial end, it has been the topic of many a conversation this week.

Before I move on, I should note that I play a small role in getting things going, many of the others do much more. My two projects this year are the Thursday (Aug. 26) and Friday night music shows. I looked at the forecast and saw that rain is possible for Thursday, which would really dampen attendance.

The prospects for Friday night look somewhat better. Maybe after spending a week of evenings at the fair, I will feel more lively and have more topics to write about.

Right now, I’m just hoping it doesn’t rain any more.

Get more tongue in cheek commentary this week's issue of the Alleghany News!

Email: allnews@ls.net