North Carolina (and much of the Southeast) has suffered from extreme drought. The last figure I saw was that the Raleigh area was short at least 9 inches of rain for 2007. It had gotten to the point that the horizon sky was brown, a sight familiar to Kansans in the typically hot, dry summer weather, but not typical of the wetter, greener weather here. Trees were droopy and lawns were brown and spotty. Most importantly, the reservoir where we get our drinking from was down to less than half of it’s capacity. When I drove by it last week, there was a significant portion of the lake that has been dry long enough for grass to sprout up on the bottom! As of the beginning of this week, Raleigh had about 100 days of water left before we would be completely out.

I’ve been working on saving water. Since I don’t have a lawn, I can’t cut back on watering it. I stopped washing my car in May (okay, that had nothing to do with the drought, I just can’t see shelling out money to have a clean car for less than a week), so I couldn’t conserve more water there. Instead, I decided to be more conscious about the length of my showers. I have been able to cut my average shower time in half, and am going for even shorter. Don’t ask how long of showers I was taking before, it was pathetic. I can only blame it on the fact that I’ve never had to pay the water bill.

Last Wednesday, I specifically prayed for rain. It rained on Thursday (though not enough to make a dent, but it did soften up the ground). This Tuesday, I also specifically prayed for rain. It’s rained/misted fairly steadily since Wednesday. I’ve heard that some places have gotten up to 5 inches of rain, and it hasn’t stopped yet! What a blessing!

The moral of the story:
When you pray for rain, bring an umbrella.