Rain. Rain.

The volume of rain falling over the Mid Atlantic seaboard these past few days serves as a double edged sword in many respects.  On one hand, the trees and plants are happy.  They’re healthy, green all over and it is nice to see.  However, from my perspective, as much as I enjoy running in the rain the thought of leaving the house early in the morning in the cold and rain never exactly lights my fires.  Nor does the thought of the ground becoming heavily water logged due to all the rain and we’re suddenly book-ended by another hurricane with heavy winds, pushing over trees on to houses, cars, streets and power lines- this would be a nightmare.  Early last week, on Monday- my first full day home from Colorado- on a run in Rock Creek Park I studied the fell trees, casualties of Hurricane Irene.  Fortunately, the damage appeared minimal and I barely had to negotiate new trail space around fallen debris.  I was however struck by the size of many defunded red oak acorns, littered over some of the trails.  In Rock Creek Park lives many beautiful red oak trees and they generally produce tons of acorns.  The unusal thing about some of these particular acorns were their size- they were huge.  Double the size I am accustomed to seeing.  What does this spell for winter?  Cold temperatures?  Nothing at all?  I am not that big into folklore so who knows.  All of this rain, however, I think, does spell something.  Something good- I am sure of it.

The trees are filled with large leaves and large volumes of leaves.  This means color.  Lot’s and lot’s of color soon to come our way.  Moreover, this means scenic running and other outdoor activity conditions come late September all the way through early November.  This rain will end soon enough and for the short term inconveniences it is causing- like nasty driving conditions- the reward will be worth it come foliage time.