Down Came the Rain

I'm sure you remember when the mail carrier came to our door, before Christmas, and announced, as he handed me a package, "The world's coolest rain gauge!" It was one of Dan's Christmas presents, and, thanks to the mailman, was no longer a secret. Well, I don't know if it's the "world's coolest," but it really is a cool rain gauge. It has a copper tube with a polycarbonate measurement tube and foam float inside. As the rain falls into the copper tube, the blue tube rises to indicate the water level, thus working on Archimedes' principle of water displacement.

FINALLY, in the wee hours of this morning, we had our first measurable rainfall since Dan put the gauge outside. About 3:00 a.m. I was startled out of my sound sleep by a robust and long-lasting thunder and lightning storm. The wind was howling and the rain (with a little bit of hail) was beating on our windows. It was an awesome display. I wasn't able to get back to sleep for a long time, and, when I finally did, along came Part II of the storm . . . a repeat of the first one. So, not much sleep for me last night, but it was a terrific light show, and here in Central Texas we are always grateful for rain.

This morning I went outside to see if Dan's World's Coolest Rain Gauge had done its job, and it had! It showed that we had been blessed with almost 2.5 inches of rain overnight.