I heard on the news that Portland has had 147 days of measurable rain between Oct. 1st and the end of March.   If you do the math over that six month period, it calculates to over 80%!  Over 26 inches if rain fell in that time period – a new historic mark for this region!  WOW!  The rain has become so much apart of our Portland culture that it has seeped into our souls.  For example, this morning I was listening to the radio, and Peter Gabriel’s “Red Rain” was playing as I dodged raindrops on my morning run.  It was followed by “Imagine Dragons” singing “Believer,” with the words, “It rained down like Pain!”  Rain and Pain to me make great poetic partners.

There is an organization in our area called The Rainy Day Blues Society of Oregon – I’m thinking about joining.  I’m sure their preferred taste in music includes the songs: “Stormy Weather,” “Feels Like Rain”, “Come Rain Or Come Shine,” “The Sky Is Crying,” “Standing In The Rain,” “I Get The Blues When It Rains,” “Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just As Bad),” “New Falling Rain Blues,” “Rainy Day,” “The Rain Don’t Fall On Me,” “Some Cold Rainy Day,” “Raining In My Heart,” and “Rain, Rain, Rain,” just to name a few.  For the record, those are all actual titles, and there really is an organization called The Rainy Day Blues Society of Oregon. www.rainydayblues.org

What does this have to do with retirement?  Well, in a few years when my wife joins me in retirement, we’ll have the freedom to move “Somewhere Over The Rainbow,” to a nice, dry, sunny climate.  Fortunately, because I am retired and she has vacation time, we were recently fortunate to escape for 11 glorious days of sunshine, leaving behind the Vitamin D3 and Happy Lamp.  We were both taught as a children back in the Midwest to save for a rainy day, and that made sense given there was more snow and less rain in Indiana.  Had we moved directly from there to here, we probably would be more content in just giving up the snow.  However, having lived in that other weird city, Austin, Texas, for five years, there was little snow or rain, so giving up all that warmth was a little more difficult.  Also, had we followed that advice to save for a rainy day, we would have spent it already here in Portland!

I decided to write my own song about the RAIN, and I’m sure when I finish the word PAIN will come into play.  I wanted to call it “Rainy Day Blues,” but Willie Nelson already made that song popular.  He was also from Texas, so he probably should have been writing more about sunshine.  By the way, in my Google search for “saving for a rainy day,” the questions, “can I spend it now and what should I buy?” were asked by some unrecognized lyricist.  You do have to be careful with copyrighted material when you write.   I don’t have a title yet, but this would be my first verse:

If I  had been,

Saving for a rainy day.

It’d be spent by now,

With more rain on the way.

Maybe I can write a jingle for the Rainy Day Blues Society of Oregon?   Or perhaps I’ll just move back to Texas and establish the Society Of Green Grass Y’all (SOGGY).  After all, ironically there is at least A Rainey Street in Austin and not one in Portland!  In the meantime, I’ll start saving for a “Sunny Day” and be very rich before I spend it all.