I love being outside. Sitting inside for too long gives me the creeps. I get irritable. I bought the house we’re in mostly because it had 2 patios AND a deck. Being cooped up in the Winter is torture for me.

But several months ago, something began to change in me. I don’t love the outdoors any less, and I don’t love my couch any more. But when Georgia started drying up like stale bread last summer, I began to wonder if we were all just one gubernatorial decree away from buying Dasani out of the back of an Impala.

What changed? The short of it: I’ve become a recovering rain hater. I still get annoyed when I find out the hard way that my wife has ‘borrowed’ my umbrella…again. But when the rain falls these days, there’s something in me that says a quick “thank You.”

While I was braving the rain to grab something from my truck today, McKenna followed me out the garage door in nothing but her T-shirt and ‘big girl panties.’ She said she wanted to ‘play in the sogginess.’ I have no clue where she adopted that terminology. In short order, she was carelessly splashing around in the puddles. Then she looked up into the clouds and blinked repeatedly as the drops hit her eyes. I think ‘the sogginess’ has always been what I liked least about rainy, wet days like today. But the last few times we’ve seen some good soakers these last couple of months, I’ve felt more like she did today than I care to admit.

I’m starting to like the rain again.