Lesson #3: Rain Happens

The attitude that Florida residents have about rain can be summed up in 2 words: "Rain Happens." 

The biggest example of this attitude is seeing a landscaper (landscaping is a huge business in Florida) cutting the grass in the rain.  It was a down pour and I was picking up my mother from a car repair appointment.  By "down pour" I mean the streets were flooded to the point that the water was over the speed bumps in the apartment parking lot.  On the 10 mile journey, I see a landscaper cutting grass in this down pour and a construction crew busting up the sidewalk.  In Indiana we don't even think about cutting the grass if it has rained in the past 2 days.

Rain in the rainy season (those are the only seasons South Florida has it seems, wet and dry) usually only lasts about a block or two...no really, one block it is dry and sunny, next block a down pour, then dry and sunny again.  So I guess, the old Indiana saying of, "If you don't like the weather, wait a minute and it will change," is similar here...but reversed, "If you like the weather, wait and minute and it will change." According to a co-worker, one of the few people I have met that actually was born and raised in Florida, if you don't do things in the rain during the wet season, it won't get done.  That is why they cut grass soon after rain, but he agrees that cutting grass in the rain is extreme.

We are heading toward the end of the hurricane season and therefore the rainy season, so we shall see what the dry season will be like.

PS: Got my Florida Driver's License today...the process was not as scary or as difficult as many Florida people were telling me...