We have a stormy weather today due to a typhoon and it's a very dangerous situation to be outside. I can hear the ear-splitting thunders and high speed winds howling like it's a ghost trying to boo us during the day. Some of the trees, plants, and light structures outside are ripped already. We have a cover in the balcony used to shield against the strong winds and rain but it got destroyed so quickly. Our poor cattos need to be evacuated inside and shelter them. Combine it with strong rainfall and you've got a deadly natural force that covers the vast majority of the land, that can last for a few hours up to several days.

Exciting Rainy Days

This situation reminded me of my childhood (around 5-10 years old) when I really loved seeing the rain and play with it. We're still living in the dark and cramped alleyways where rain doesn't have room to enter due to the overlapping roofs. Every time I hear on the local news and radio that there's going to be rain or typhoons coming, I feel excited. It's like celebrating an occasion that I anticipate a lot.

During those rainy days, I am just watching the droplets and mist and I have some contraptions made to collect the water from the rain. It consists of several plastic bags or containers that are shaped like a trench which is efficient at collecting and moving rainwater. And I am happy because our roof is pouring so much water like waterfalls during a heavy rain which I took advantage of to collect more water and bathe with it.

My mom and aunt noticed that I liked playing with rain and scolded me, saying that it can cause illness like colds and fever. They prohibited me to go outside and tried to add a collecting trench in the roof that will collect the waterfalls that I highly enjoy.

As I grew up I noticed that I slowly lose interest in playing with the rain and realized how weird I am. Instead, I played with videogames, especially when classes are suspended. Yes!

Doom and Gloom Within the Storm Clouds

When I reached high school, I noticed that rainy days are really bothersome, even for a few minutes especially during the entry and exit of school and break times, though we all love it when classes are suspended. As college days came in, the suspended classes are pretty rare anymore and the local government or schools would declare suspension only for grade school and high school. As if college students are waterproof!

There was an experience of mine that I have to prepare for a quiz that day and the heavy rains drenched me before the class started. The feeling of cold and wet during exams is not great and distracting.

In my case, I don't like it when a sudden brownout happens or a long blackout occurs especially that we need the Internet to deal with daily tasks and transactions. It also gives me a mood that will affect my productivity like a nap taking 3 hours or more, or not being in the mood to do important matters and relying on relaxing activities to cope with it.

Lasting Impact and Damages

I wish that the current typhoon rampaging in our place would quickly stop as it has dealt some damage to high prone areas already. Our country is facing at least 20 typhoons a year or 2-3 per month.

Millions to billions worth of damage to structures and displacement to people is quite depressing and it will take months for some to recover. There are areas that get flash floods within 10 minutes of decent rainfall and mountains have landslides. Some crops die due to excessive water or uprooted by the winds. Over the past decade, it took several repairs to our house as leaks from gutters and roof appeared. Currently, we need to repair again after this storm ends and the last time we conducted a general fix was 5 months ago. What we fear is that when rainwater goes into some of the electric linings at home.

We had an event before that our light bulb melted into liquid glass as the water caused it to short circuit. It happened directly to our dining table as we're about to eat dinner. After minutes of taking a bite from food, a bright spark from the bulb happened and we were frightened, quickly leaving the table. Thankfully no one was hurt and it was fixed quickly. Overall, dealing with heavy rains and storms is not fun and with heavy consequences, sometime leading to unforgettable traumatic experiences.

Are you a pluviophile or ombrophobic? How's the weather in your place today? Please stay safe at home if you are experiencing the same weather as I do.

Thanks for reading and see you in the next one!

[#16] Published September 8, 2021