Words for a rainy day

My daughter posted this photo on Facebook, saying:  "I am a 'pluviophile'…… a lover of rain."  I responded with a link to my recent post about flooding inside my apartment from the 7.68-inches of rain in six hours in St. Louis, which was about 25% of our normal yearly rainfall total in just 12 hours.  That rainy day made history.  I left this comment on her post:  "Some rain (like the history-making rainfall that hit St. Louis this week) makes us tend to lean in the opposite direction."

Word of the Day #1

pluviophile = The word pluviophile comes from the Latin word "pluvial," which means rain, and "phile," which denotes a thing or a person.  Therefore, a pluviophile is a lover of rain, or someone who finds joy and peace of mind during the rainy days.  Example:  My daughter is a pluviophile.

Word of the Day #2

pluviophobia = fear of weather related to rain, including storms, wind, thunder, and lightning.  This is a neologism, but there's already a word for fear of rain:  ombrophobia (see definitions below).

Word of the Day #3

ne·ol·o·gism /nēˈäləˌjizəm/ noun = a newly coined word or expression.

Word of the Day #4

Ombrophobia is an intense fear of rain, from intense weather to a drizzle.  An ombrophobe might worry about acid rain, germs in rain, floods, or other dangers.  Ombrophobia is a type of anxiety disorder that can cause symptoms and emotions that affect daily life.

The next couple of books I'll read

Random Acts of Kindness by Animals ~ by Stephanie LaLand, 1997 and 2008, stories, 226 pages

Stephanie LaLand has gathered stories sure to fill your heart with happiness and hope.  Anyone who’s had a pet knows there is something special about them.  We see it in their eyes when they look at us affectionately or play with others or help someone in need.  How animals act and the things they do are similar to the way we care for each other.  Doris Day says in the Foreword:  "That tender connection — the bond between all living things that we call love — is what this little book is all about."

Four Fantastic Surprise Endings for Children 3-5 ~ by Scott Gordon, 2015, children's stories, 176 pages

1. Froggy Dearest ~ One fine day, you come across the frog of your dreams.  Soft spoken and ever courteous, you've never met a creature quite so charming.  But tread carefully, for this frog has quite a secret to share!
2. Little Chickadee ~ After months of loneliness, a little chickadee realizes that he misses someone in particular.  He writes constantly and waits for her return, but time slowly trickles by with no end in sight.  There's something he's been meaning to tell her — something very, very special.  Will he get the chance?
3. Eggtastic ~ Spring is just around the corner, and it's time to see what the Easter Bunny is up to.  This year he's enlisted some help, and it's an odd choice at that.  What is that clever rabbit up to, and what is he really planning?  Find out in this humorous picture book.
4. Who Wants To Be a Robot? ~ The off-world planet of Infinim, which promises a heavenly and eternal existence for its society of robots, is now taking applications. Although one of its applicants is older and not quite as quick as he used to be, does he have what it takes to be accepted?  Figure out who he is before the story's end in this clever children's book.

I found both of these books on the Kindle I inherited from my friend Donna.

Starting another book today

One Crazy Summer ~ by Rita Williams-Garcia, 2010, YA historical fiction (California), 240 pages

In the summer of 1968, after traveling from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to spend a month with the mother they barely know, eleven-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters (Vonetta and Fern) arrive to a cold welcome.  They discover that their mother, who had abandoned them seven years ago, is resentful of the intrusion of their visit and wants them to attend a nearby Black Panther summer camp.  They, on the other hand, had hoped to go to Disneyland and meet Tinker Bell.  This moving novel won the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction and the Coretta Scott King Award and was a National Book Award Finalist.

Dear Diary

In going through some of the boxes of water-soaked books in my storage locker, I found my childhood diary.  My nickname was "Bitsy," as some of you may remember.  Inside the cover are these words:

To Bitsy from Aunt Dot Xmas 1950

So my first entry was Monday, January 1, 1951.  I was ten years old when I wrote this:

Wrote show "At Home."  Put it on in the yard.  Made 9c.  I got 3c.  Later we went to the picture show.  Saw Hopalong Cassidy & Bud Abbott & Lou Costello in double feature. 

Saw show at "Dixie" was added later above this first entry.  That was a movie theater in Chattanooga in the 1950s. We lived in a neighborhood full of children, and it appears I had some helpers to put on the "show" that day.  It also appears that we charged a penny each for the privilege of seeing us perform my little play, and I got a third of the money.  So whatever "show" we did, I'd say it took three of us to do it.

Notice that I was a writer early on, not only writing in my diary, but I also wrote a play.  And I was a musician, writing this on May 4, 1951, a week after turning eleven:

My first real concert.  At the Memorial Auditorium.  It was about the happiest moment of my life.  I played the fluteophone with the big band.  Saved program.

I misspelled "flutophone," but I had fun playing it.  Having that experience probably made learning clarinet easier when I got a clarinet for Christmas in 1952, also in the diary.

In early 1954, I wrote repeatedly that I took bassoon lessons.  I played clarinet for only a year before switching over to bassoon.  But my friend Ada and I played our clarinets together at least once, since the Friday, February 4, 1955 entry says:

Ada Rentfro and I played clarinet duet, "Sisters," at E.S.'s Chili Supper!  I changed words of song.  Had planned to sing.  Sore throats.

"E. S." would be East Side Junior High School, where we attended 7th, 8th, and 9th grades together.

Ada and I also sang "Sisters" on stage before our whole school that year, as I have mentioned before.  For that performance, I played an accordian while we sang in front of our peers.

I'm still writing, but now I'm writing on a blog.  A blog is a lot like a diary.  I guess I should mention books and reading, huh?

Liar and Spy ~ by Rebecca Stead, 2012, children's mystery (New York), 208 pages

The first day Georges (the S is silent) moves into a new Brooklyn apartment, he sees a sign taped to a door in the basement:  SPY CLUB MEETING — TODAY!  That’s how he meets his twelve-year-old neigh­bor Safer.  He and Safer quickly become allies — and fellow spies.  Their assignment was to track the mysterious Mr. X, who lives in the apartment upstairs.  But as Safer’s requests become more and more demanding, Georges starts to wonder:  how far is too far to go for your only friend?

This is the book I'll read next, after finishing Aunt Bessie Decides by Diana Xarissa (2014, cozy mystery, 238 pages), which I'm reading now.  Both of these are books that were in my friend Donna's Kindle, which I "inherited" after she died last year.

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

A catbird for Caturday

This catbird was seen recently in University City, a town on the outskirts of St. Louis.  Clawdia Cat wonders why anyone would call this thing a "catbird."  She thinks it is a whole lot more BIRD than CAT.

Beginning ~ with hampers of food

Beginning

"I hope we have enough to eat," Hugh said anxiously from the driver's seat of his car.

Bessie laughed from the passenger seat.  "I'm sure we have plenty," she assured the young policeman.  "Doona, Grace, and I all brought hampers of food.  We have enough for a small army."

"Or one Hugh Watterson," Grace laughed from the backseat.

Aunt Bessie Decides ~ by Diana Xarissa, 2014, cozy mystery, 238 pages

Aunt Bessie decides that she and her closest friends should have an enjoyable night out.  Elizabeth Cubbon (known to almost everyone as Aunt Bessie) has made many friends over the lifetime that she’s lived in the village of Laxey, but few have been as close as the ones she’s made recently.  Bessie relied on Doona Moore, Hugh Watterson, and John Rockwell to help her through several recent murder investigations she’s found herself caught up in.  Now she wants to treat them all to an open-air performance of a Shakespearean play on the grounds of historic Peel Castle.

Aunt Bessie decides that it doesn’t much matter what show the troupe is performing as long as she and her friends can relax and have fun.  Two members have recently left the theatre company.  Now the troupe has thrown aside its usual repertoire in favor of a play written by one of their own.  When those two former members appear in the audience, though, someone decides to get rid of one of them for good.  Aunt Bessie decides to give the show another chance, but a second performance almost ends in a second tragedy.  With all of the suspects blaming one another, and several of them turning up on the doorstep of Bessie’s cottage, it’s time for Bessie to decide to solve this murder herself.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

St. Louis flooding

Our rain storm came from the "wrong" direction in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, which meant it managed to come in through a hole somewhere in my building (they can't find the leak).  By wrong direction, I mean that only when the wind blows rain at my building from the EAST does it find that hole and come down the wall of the stairwell next to my kitchen.  From there it comes through the wall into my kitchen.  That's part of the reason they are moving us to a new building (which is being constructed now) and then demolishing my building.  So in the wee hours yesterday, a flood alert on my iPhone woke me up and I went into the kitchen (probably to feed Clawdia Cat) and stepped into a big pool of water.  MY flooding was inside my sixth floor apartment!  But also, my flooding was INSIDE my storage unit a couple of miles away from here.  It's a storage unit where I have boxes of BOOKS.  Yes, they're water damaged.  Otherwise, I'm okay.

The bad part is this:  "More rain could hit Missouri, and Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia could also all see dangerous flooding in the coming days."  I found this quote (and the chart above) HERE.  My children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren are all in Tennessee.  Unfortunately, rain is heading in that direction.