Walking and wetness

I ran across an old file that had a couple of blog post ideas. One of them was "A walk in a warm rain." This is something I have not done in many years. Mostly because it is something older folks don't do (yeah, I am an "older" folk). But also because I haven't had the opportunity. I don't do much walking anymore. And I am not about to leave the house when it rains. I prefer to stay dry.

But I did do quite a bit of walking in the rain when I was young. And much of that walking was done in south Florida where the rain in the summer is fairly warm. If the rain is light and warm, it is a pleasant feeling; if the rain is heavy or cold, not so much. There is something sensual about walking in a warm rain. A cold rain cuts into you, chills you, makes you miserable. A warm rain does none of that, it reminds you of standing in a shower stall and feeling the warm water running through your hair and down your face and back.

Even a warm rain feels cold at first but if you resist heading for shelter and just continue walking, the chill will go away and a kind of euphoria will replace it.

I couldn't do this in San Diego because the rain never felt warm, it remained cold. It was easily done in Hawaii and south Florida. I would, as a boy in his mid teens, find myself walking in the rain after having been to the beach. I would walk and hitchhike home from the beach fairly often back then. Rains would come in the afternoon on a regular basis during the summer so it was not unusual to find yourself in a light rain, or even a heavy one. I learned not to head indoors if caught out in the rain. Stores and restaurants were (and still are) air conditioned and chilly, turning your wet clothes cold and heavy and chilling to the bones. Better to stand outside under an awning or roof over a sidewalk.

Now, all rain feels cold to me. A sign of age, I suppose, but I miss those walks where the heat of the road causes a little mist to rise and the air is fresh and you no longer notice just how wet you are.