Nature 1, Pete 0

~ beetleypete

After what seems like week after week of relentless rain here, I went to bed last night listening to yet more torrential downpours.

I had long-ago started to wonder if weather like this can seriously ruin your life, and I conclude that it can. It saps my enthusiasm for anything, and makes me want to shut myself away inside and do nothing. Knowing I have to take Ollie out in miserable wet and dull weather every day has made me dread the time when I have to get ready, and see him excited to go out.

Constant cleaning of muddy wet paw-prints on the kitchen floor, doormats so wet they never dry, and a damp dog all evening, despite my best efforts to dry him off. Nothing to see out of the windows except more rain running down them, and having to have all kinds of different pairs of shoes at strategic places to avoid walking-in the wet leaves that I have to trudge through.

I went out to the shed this morning to get something, and walked into a two-inch deep puddle where it had flooded inside overnight, due to the overloaded water table in the ground. The concrete floor has soaked up as much moisture as it can, and is now leaking it like a wet sponge.

As it is still pouring down outside, I have no inclination to even begin to try to sort it out today. So I just closed the door and came back inside, totally and utterly fed up with it all.

It is literally too much for me to cope with mentally. Too much water, too much constant rain. It seems we no longer have seasons. Just rain, summer and winter.

I’m just sick to death of it, and I really am at the end of my tether.

So much for ‘Merry Christmas’.

83 thoughts on “Nature 1, Pete 0”

  2. So many people feel the same way up here in the winter. Another day of snow, dark at 7:00 AM, dark at 4:30 PM, wind chill of 5 degrees. And it never seems to end. Perhaps there is some comfort in knowing you’re not alone. It can drive one to Bah Humbug!

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  3. Pete-you are far from crazy. Here the summer heat does that to the best of us . . but there is an end in sight and that makes the difference. Is this so in all parts of England for I have heard that it does rain often there. I know moving is awful -but so is depression. My thoughts are with you and I send my best. your fan, Michele

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    1. Thanks, Michele. This is supposedly one of the drier parts of this country. It rains a great deal more in the north and west.
      I doubt moving is an option anymore, as Julie’s family have moved up here to be closer to their Mum, so she wouldn’t leave the area.
      Best wishes as always, Pete.

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  5. It’s time to make a comeback, Pete. It’s only halftime.😎 You’ve written about the rain a lot, and my curiosity got the best of me today. I looked at Beetley’s rainfall for the year—Holy crap! No wonder it’s worn you down. It blows away anything from the last ten years.

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    1. I’m so pleased that you checked and verified my moans, Pete.
      Can you believe the crazy statistic that Norfolk is supposed to be the driest county in England, overall?
      I don’t, it’s just propaganda to encourage tourism! 😦
      Best wishes, Pete.

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      1. Something is comforting about knowing that people understand our complaints are valid. We’ve had wildfires for the last three years due to the droughts in California, although it’s been raining a lot this month. We’re all victims of the forces of nature. Here’s wishing you sunny weather soon.

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  6. So sorry that you lost the battle today Pete. I truly sympathize. After a mostly dry fall here in the Pacific NW it seems that all that pent up rain has finally been loosed in a fury making today the rainiest Dec 20th on record. And winter hasn’t even started! Still, I am confident that there will be a few clear skies to come in both our parts of the world. Hang in there. 🙂

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    1. Seriously mate. I have had enough now. It’s no longer even mildly amusing. I honestly do not want to wake up to another day of this shit tomorrow. I cannot do ‘relentless’ anymore. I give up.
      Cheers, Pete.

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  9. We are encased in ice. The main result here of climate change seems to be more ice instead of snow. I would prefer rain at this point. My sympathies. I lived 50 years in the Pacific Northwest with rain from October through early June.

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    1. Thanks, Elizabeth. I am close to the stage where I would take ice. In fact anything except day after day of relentless rain. I am starting to understand why people in dark rainy places commit suicide. Waking up to another day of the same is just unthinkable. I can’t possibly do another 10+ years of this, I know that for sure.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  10. Just by way of contrast, we had a couple of days of light snow, then frost and sunshine, this week; now it’s back to steady rain. The silver lining for me is that it’s milder: it’s the persistent cold that gets me down. Cheers, Jon.

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  11. Well, my foul-weather friend, here’s an interesting list of the sunniest cities in the U.S., according to Earth.com:

    (1) Yuma, Arizona⁠—90% chance of sunshine
    (2) Redding, California⁠—88% chance of sunshine
    (3)⁠ Phoenix, Arizona—85% chance of sunshine
    (4)⁠ Las Vegas, Nevada—85% chance of sunshine
    (5)⁠ Tucson, Arizona—85% chance of sunshine
    (6) El Paso, Texas—84% chance of sunshine
    (7)⁠ Fresno, California—79% chance of sunshine
    (8)⁠ Reno, Nevada—79% chance of sunshine
    (9)⁠ Flagstaff, Arizona—78% chance of sunshine
    (10)⁠ Sacramento, California—78% chance of sunshine

    Las Vegas, where I live, averages 4.2 inches of rain per year. However, 2019 has been an especially wet year, with 5.6 inches of rain so far (some rain is predicted for next week!). Obviously, we can’t complain about excessive rain or high humidity here in this corner of the Mojave Desert, but we do have three exceptionally hot summer months every year, and so we pray that the annual “monsoon season” will bring us relief in the form of a few raindrops. A few is all we got this year: 0.03 inches on July 13th; and 0.1 inches on August 1st. The months before and after were bone dry.

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  14. Well. Pete, at least you didn’t have to shovel the rain. Here in the snow belt we are hearing great snow, we’ll have a white Christmas. Nobody has ever explained to me what is so important about having a white Christmas. I don’t think there was snow that night in Bethleham.

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    1. Indeed, there was no snow in the Middle East at the time, and hopefully none in Beetley this year either. As you say, I don’t have to shovel water, but where the shed is concerned, I wish I could!.
      Thanks, Don.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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      1. It was a joke, really. It’s okay. It’s part of your personality. Is there a word for my list for one who complains about the weather? There must be.
        I didn’t mean to add to your grouchy state, my friend. Just picking at you…;)

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    1. I can’t get to the bottom of the issue with the shed, David. We have some guttering that goes into a ‘soak away’. But I have no idea where that is, as it is obviously not doing its job!
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  17. Merry Christmas, Pete! Rain is important for the world in general, you know! 🙂
    I never heard of so much of rain though. Rainy season makes me sad too because of being holed up and having to clean the water that often comes in from the windows (bad house construction). I think we all need Sun to charge our internal batteries. So, I hope you have a dry Christmas.

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  18. Pete, I wish I could share some of our sunshine. It is cold but sunny. We were in drought earlier in the fall, but we have had enough rain for that to pass. I get how it makes you feel. Long dark and wet days are hard to face day after day, let alone knowing you have your shed to contend with yet again. Hoping the weather clears for you soon.

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    1. Thanks, Maggie. I can’t see any answer to it all at the moment. It has been raining daily for weeks on end, if not months. Even when we get a dry day, it rains overnight and turns everything into mush.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  20. Sorry to hear it Pete. I feel the same way. A good idea is to have very bright lights on at home and take Vitamin D. This really helps since we need sunlight to feel good. You aren’t imagining this it’s part of your body’s reaction. They’ve found light tables help as well. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that the rain stops!

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    1. I can just about cope with the darkness at this time of year. But I have lived through years of endless rain now, with this year definitely one of the worst. I think I have reached some kind of breaking point.
      Thanks, Felicity.
      Best wishes, Pete. x

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    1. Thanks, Janet. I think it will take more than a rainbow to cheer me up today.
      More rain forecast here later. I don’t know how they can say ‘more’, when it hasn’t stopped for fourteen hours…They should just say ‘the same rain’.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  25. Hold that thought…it may brighten up by the 25th I am dealing with w25 degree weather and rain here as well….but MoMo must go and get wet and track up the house…..what the Hell she deserves it chuq

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  28. I know how you feel. And I don’t have a dog to walk! I find that I want to sleep all the time. I’d happily sleep from November to February. Today we have sun for the first time this week, but everywhere is sodden.

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    1. When the sun came out earlier this week, it was still raining here even though it was relatively bright out. It has rained so hard overnight for days on end, it has been waking me up. Then I look at the Weather News on TV, and they talk about ‘frequent showers’. I am so fed up, Jude, and the flooded shed has put the tin hat on it once again.
      Best wishes, Pete. x

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  29. It has been the wettest autumn for some time, Pete. I think of you every time I see rain on the weather map for Norfolk.

    I’d say that I hope you have a sustained dry period to dry everything out, but I fear it’s unlikely for a while.

    Happy Christmas, anyway.

    PS I forgot to send you a card (again?) this year, and I can’t be bothered now, so all the best to you and Julie for Christmas and the coming year.

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    1. Cheers, Ian. I didn’t send any cards this year, the first time ever. The cost of postage is ridiculous now, and 100+ cards has become a silly and unnecessary expense.
      Love and best wishes to you and Janice as always.
      Pete.

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  30. Oh, Pete, please don’t give up….I can empathise as it’s pretty sodden here at present, and I get soaked just trying to get in the car, but I don’t have a dog to walk…..

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    1. It has really got to me today, Sue. I really have had enough.
      I need it to stop raining, and not for just one morning. It is becoming more than an obsession with me now. In all honesty, I am at one of the lowest periods in my life, and all because of rain. I know it sounds crazy, but it is what it is, unfortunately
      Best wishes, Pete.

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