Rain and Rainbows

It rained today - soft in the morning and hard in the afternoon. I took my break in my car, as I do most of the time now that the heat is gone, and read my book and listened to the rain on the roof. I've always loved the sound of rain on a car's roof. It's so loud and unabsorbed. I remember one time I had to pull my car over on 122nd Avenue in Portland because it was raining so hard it was as if someone were pointing a really big hose at the windshield. The sound drowned out the radio (ha ha!).


I think the sound of rain on any roof is delicious. I lived in a finished attic for about a year and rainy days and nights were always the best sound. My housemate/landlady had a white cat named Bree who would sit on my chest when I was reading and so I would be forced to listen until she got bored and stalked off. Now, because of the location of the gutter ends on the house, the sound of water crashing into the deck comes along with heavy rain drumming on the roof.


I saw six rainbows today. There was one on the way to work, and five on the way home. Two of them may have been the same rainbow viewed from different directions. One was the mirror image of the other one (in a double rainbow), and Zirpu pointed out the colors were in reverse order (now we know why).


When I was a kid, Grush, who had lived for many years in Hawaii, gave me a book called The Eight Rainbows of 'Umi. I remember that it had beautiful pictures but I don't remember the story, except that every time something significant happened to 'Umi a rainbow appeared. I'm pretty sure the book didn't tell 'Umi's story like this. Anyway, I wound up thinking rainbows were a sign of magic, visions and illusions.


Why are there so many songs about rainbows?