I Remember Rain

The soft pitter patter of rain on my windows, the rivlets  running down the panes, the puddles in the drive way has eluded my life for months now.  Gone are the days of snuggling down into my sofa reading while listening to the rain, a pot of soup simmering on the stove or sipping a cup of hot tea.  It has been too long since  I have been able   to  lie in bed while the thunder rolls and listen to  the rain pelt the windows.  The trees around here have taken on an eery thick beige coating of dust.  Everything is brown.  There may not be any wildflowers this year.  Wildflowers need rain in the winter.  
Whoever heard of Easter without wildflowers?  That’s just wrong!  Each cold front promises rain, but doesn’t deliver.  It only brings a red flag warning of “High fire danger” because of the low humidity and dry conditions. It’s as if the weathermen were snake-oil salesman.  Promising desperate people a 20% chance of showers that never comes.  We believe them because we want to, we must; but in our heart we know we have heard the prediction before and been left high and dry.

 In Texas, we are in the midst of a severe drought.  Some are comparing this drought to the drought of the 1950’s when many ranchers lost  cattle, trees, and farm land was essentially useless.  The main river running through our town now  can be walked  across  in some places and some natural springs have quit running. Many homeowners wells have gone dry.

There is a difference this time in regards to the drought. There are many more people living in this area that was not designed to sustain suburban growth.  It is mainly hill country designed for ranching goats, a few cattle and little else.  Homeowners seeking to escape urban life,  are finding it in smaller communities.  They are seeking   more individualized attention in smaller school districts for their children and safer environments by coming are flocking to small town communities. 

However, homeowners move to the country expecting to bring the urban life with them and housing developers accommodate them.  They do this by building too large of homes on too small of lots too close together on ground that was never meant to sustain that many people.  It’s as if they are all using multiple straws sucking like giant pigs  out of the same aquifer . They drive their giant gas guzzling SUV’s and park them in their drive way because their garage is packed with so much crap  they can’t get their huge gas guzzling SUV in it.  Homeowners seeking the “simple” life,  as in the TV series Green Acres, but just can’t let go of the diamonds and furs, not to mention the carpet grass and azaleas.

The aquifer is down 33 feet and supplies not only the wells for the homes in the hill country, but also a major south Texas city.  Clean water will become the most precious resource in the next twenty years.  And yet the rain does not fall.  We have not had a good hard rain since last May.  Lakes are down by 11 ft.  and creeks have dried  up. 
Texas has the law of capture on its books.  That means if I have a well on my land and you have a well next to it and you want to pump day and night to water your lawn and drain my well dry there is nothing I can do about it.  Same goes for that huge town south of here, whose initials are S.A.

I am praying for rain.  We desperately need it.  To give the countryside a good soaking, to refill the aquifer, the creeks, the lakes, the rivers.

Please join me. 

Tags: Drought, Rain, San Antonio, SUV's, Urban flight