critters. and weather.
2005-06-12, 9:15 p.m.

There are two things that still seem and may always seem foreign to me that are peculiar to living in The South. Though I've lived here almost half my life, I can't seem to get used to:

(1) The quick summer rain storms. In the North, it seems like if it rained, it would pretty much steadily rain for a while. Days, even. Here, the rain showers come and go in the space of minutes. Sometimes (like today) violent thunderstorms come and go in less than an hour. One minute, it's 99 degrees and sunny, the next, the rain is coming down in sheets. A new thing I've done since the Nashville tornado (of 1998, I think), I listen for the sound of an oncoming train. That's what a close-by twister is supposed to sound like. I think I hear that sound a lot. Because, you know:

wind whipping through tree branches + my overactive imagination = sound of oncoming train which means death by tornado

(2) Possoms. Or opossums. The sight of them always takes me by surprise. They look otherworldly to me. Their little legs aren't big enough for their bodies and they move in a strange waddling way. Yet they can go surprisingly fast. If I see one when I'm driving, if possible, I'll always stop and watch them run away. I was at a pet store once where they had one named Harry that they let me pick up. He hissed at me. If you've ever had one hiss at you, I bet it was when you were poking it with a stick to see if it was dead or pretending ("playing possum") and s/he hissed at you and scared you away. Am I right?