Rain and Sunshine

Five long days of rain and wind. That's what tropical storm Debbie brought us in Orlando, and the storm wasn't even close to us the way it was around the Big Bend of Florida. All I can say is how fortunate I was to be down here rather than up around the northern sections of Florida.

Today started out just like all the other days going back to last Friday: dark and very, very rainy. The rain didn't stop so much as it was either light or heavy, but it kept up until I got to work (figures). It stayed long enough for me to get to my office (figures) then it turned darker and started raining again. It kept up until I left to head back home.

Rather than just dive into the Prius and drive off, instead I grabbed the E-PL1 with its 14-42 kit lens, walked over to the retention pond next to the office complex, and stood there watching the ducks swimming around while off in the distance the little squalls of rain poured between the stacked up cloud banks. We've had enough rain in the last five days to raise the water in the pond up about a foot, flooding a good six feet of shoreline. You could tell by looking at the grass marching down under the water until it disappeared. Before the rains, the waterline had dropped down past the grass exposing a good foot of sand. Like I said, a lot of water.

But I'm not going to complain. We need the rain, and lots of it. I will always remember 1998 and the major drought that turned the entire state into a tender box, setting fires all up and down the state. I will always remember driving east on I-4 and having to get off on 436 because the smoke from the fires stood like a solid wall across the expressway. Nobody was going in, and nobody was coming out.

But even the rains end, even tropical storm rains. As I was walking the Labs I was treated to an absolutely beautiful sunset. The golds and roses that colored the sky were truly gorgeous. The more I walked the more my mood was lifted. I stopped long enough to grab the moment with my cell phone.

Technical

Taken with the Olympus E-PL1 and the 14-42mm II and my HTC cell phone. I debated posting the color version of the top photo because of the glowing emerald greens in the photo, but I couldn't get the clouds to turn out the way I wanted. So I opted to post in Silver Efex Pro 2 and Low Key 2 to bring out the sky, the clouds, and the falling rain to the left.