"Rain Rage" in New York

[marmar]

from the NY Times:



New Yorkers Near a Saturation Point

By MICHAEL WILSON
Published: June 19, 2009


A 16th-century lawyer, Hippolytus de Marsiliis, noticed how water slowly dripping onto a rock eventually created a hollow in the stone. It got him thinking: What would happen if a human being’s forehead was subjected to the same treatment?

Legend claims it eventually drives the person crazy. For reasons unclear, the procedure came to be known as “Chinese water torture.” But in 21st-century New York City, the ordeal could simply be “daily life.”

We may be years away from a true understanding of the psychological effects of the rain that has fallen for 15 of the first 19 days of June. It is too soon to know whether humans will adapt to living, in effect, in an alternate universe in which water has replaced air. But for many New Yorkers, the drops on the forehead every day — Every! Single! Day! — have clearly taken the toll imagined by de Marsiliis. Routine, stipulated annoyance at inclement weather has become something darker.

Rain rage.

This week, subways smelled like sweaty locker rooms, and riders openly seethed. Dog runs were as quiet as dark alleys as their usual guests stayed home, urinating on rugs. Stinky brimstone steam rose from manholes. The spokes of millions of cheap umbrellas on crowded sidewalks lurched at passing eyeballs, as if seeking to skewer them. The Gregorian calendar itself seemed cruelly sarcastic, the words “Summer Begins” conjuring memories of Junes past. Warm and dry Junes; lost Junes. ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/20/nyregion/20rain.html?em

[vadawg]

1. lol try living in a really wet place like Assynt, my land there is like fecking atlantis

[Octafish]

2. Always with the complaining. Try living in Los Angeles.

It almost never rains in the desert.
And I don't care how happy their dogs are.

[marmar]

3. Yeah, I think I'd take rainy New York over dry Hell_Lay.

n/t

[hedgehog]

4. Ha! Wimps! One year in Buffalo, there was no direct sunshine

from November well into February. The most amazing this about that is that no one noticed. I do have to add this:

"Buffalo enjoys sunny summers. According to weather records, it is blessed with more days of summer sunshine than any other major city in the northeastern United States. "

http://www.medpeds-buffalo.info/City%20of%20Buffalo.htm

[Starbucks Anarchist]

5. I've been loving it.

[KittyWampus]

24. I haven't been able to plant my garden. Everything is delayed. I eat from my garden.

[Coyote_Bandit]

6. .

We had 23 consecutive days of rain earlier this year - followed by less than a quarter inch of rain in the next 23 days.

15 days of rain? Pffftttttt...................

[Missy Vixen]

7. It's raining in Seattle today

We had twenty-nine days without precipitation, ending on Friday. I'm relieved to see the rain.

Sorry, New York.

[Matariki]

16. That's been SO confusing!

I'm usually happy if 'summer' happens on a weekend here ;-)

[NutmegYankee]

8. It's been just as bad here on the Connecticut shoreline.

Highs in the 60's, etc. Where is my F-ing summer?

[MadHound]

9. Pfft! Throw tornadoes, hail, high winds, floods,high temperatures and humidity into the mix,

And then you've got what we've been experiencing out here in the Midwest this month. We've had eight inches of rain in the past week, over twenty tornadoes touch down in the area, damage from baseball size hail, damage from high winds, oh, yeah, and I'm in danger of being isolated as two bridges are quickly disintegrating in the flash floods that have overtopped them time and again this spring.

But hey, I live in flyover country, and what goes on out here doesn't count, at least to a lot of people:eyes:

[marmar]

13. I live in metro Detroit, and yes we've had more rain than normal and it's been cool.....

..... but it hasn't been all that bad.

[MadHound]

18. When the rain hasn't been falling,

The temperatures have cranked up into the ninties, with the humidity ranging from sixty to ninety percent. This sort of mixture continues to fuel the thunderstorms and severe weather we're having here, it's a really vicious cycle we've got going in Missouri.

I imagine that the rest of the country will finally notice when their food prices start to rise. The crops that have gotten in the ground are either getting blown flat, pounded flat, or drowned. But a lot of farmers simply haven't been able to get into their fields and plant. I pass eight large farms on my four mile jaunt to the highway, and half of those farms don't have crops in the field, and the other four have seen serious crop damage due to heavy winds, hail and rain.

[KittyWampus]

25. Thanks, upthread I noted my garden is in suspended animation. Even my CARROTS

(which like and need fairly cool and wet soil) aren't cooperating.

Can't plant beans or they'd rot.

Strawberries are coming but they aren't quite as sweet as usual.

[MadHound]

28. My peppers are stunted, as are the potatoes, tomatoes and cucumbers

The only things that seem to be thriving are my blackberries, raspberries and zucchini. Good luck to you and your garden:hi:

[KittyWampus]

31. what do you do about borers in your zucchini?

[MadHound]

33. They like to nest under dark things in the soil

So I put down a board in the garden and they make their nest under it. Then I come in and squash the hell out of them.

[yewberry]

10. It's kind of hard to muster much sympathy. 15 days?

Yes, I live in Seattle.

[Bluzmann57]

11. Boo friggin' hoo

Here in eastern Iowa we've had an inordinate amount of rain, and when I say rain, I mean ass kicking damaging storms, and are expecting more today, tomorrow, maybe Thursday, and it's getting real hot and humid too. But we are Midwesterners and we just deal with it.
"That which does not kill me only serves to make me stronger". I don't know who said it originally, but it can apply to the Midwestern weather.

[Matariki]

12. I'm from Seattle, and all I have to say about this is...

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

bwahahahaha!

[tridim]

14. The subway always smelled like urine/feces/BO when I lived there..

It was one of the reasons I didn't stay.

The rain certainly doesn't help matters.

[Skidmore]

15. Last I heard, NY was still located on Planet Earth and

is subject to all the same planetary incoveniences found in the other 49 states and the nations of the planet. Like there should be some separate natural rules for NY just because it's so special. If you chose to live piled on top of one another, then expect to stink in inclement weather.

[HughMoran]

17. Same here in NE

I haven't been able to drive my hobby car at all due to the rain, my house is infested with varmints escaping the water and my energy levels are so low that I can hardly function. Uggh - the yard work is piling up.

[AllieB]

19. Same here in MA. It has truly sucked.

My garden looks like a jungle and the tomatoes will probably stink this year. They need the June sun!! I do too.

[marmar]

20. What kind of varmints?

[HughMoran]

22. Lots of mice, ants and spiders & even some chipmonks

Mice fall in the walls and die - PU!

[marmar]

23. Yuk......When I lived in New York, they demolished a building down the street....

..... and mice started a colony in my apartment building. The landlord put that poison powder in the walls, and they croaked right there....PU is right!!!

[Rockholm]

27. Varmints? Who knew Mittens was on DU?

The North Shore is cold, windy and wet again today. It was rather nice yesterday! No sun until next Saturday. Grr.

[islandmkl]

21. my dog, who is prone to reading over my shoulder, just asked me, in that way only he can...

"What the hell is a dog run? Are there dog Olympics, and why haven't you told me about them?"

...thanks a lot...

[LWolf]

34. Is that Springer your dog?

That pic brings a lump to my throat. He looks much like the family dog that helped raise my now adult sons.

He's been gone for 15 years now, and he is still a much-loved, just not present, family member.

[customerserviceguy]

26. I have heard a lot of people complain around here

My thirty-seven years in Western Washington make me quite immune to what we're having!

[Mudoria]

29. I love rainy days, the more the better as far as I'm concerned

[david13]

30. Oh jeez, here is somebody who never heard of a ...

umbreller.
Archie Bunker

[demodonkey]

32. I love rainy days in NYC (seriously!) and when there is a blizzard it is even more fun!

The whole city goes kinda nutty for a few days, with "adults" playing on top of the snow piles the garbage trucks make (before other garbage trucks come and haul the stuff away.) It really gets a sort of a party atmosphere.

However I am not sure what 19 days of anything would do to the NYCers.

I am a Pittsburgh native and we never see the sun from November to March, plus we get blizzards, slopstorms, and rain on a regular basis. So gray weather is par for the course to me. But not in June.

BTW my family just had our farm lane destroyed by storms this past week. Until we can get it fixed I have to hike out a quarter-mile to get to our truck, which I now have parked by the main road as it is impossible to make it up to the house. Need help bad.