Came home last night from a beautiful convivial afternoon/evening out at Mackers Seafood and Midtown Café, to find the rain-tubs filled, as I was hoping! Juicy!!! 0.6 inches on the Beachside, Main Street area. And as often happens with a fat summer rain that takes us through sunset, the temperature cooled down by almost 20° F.
Last night was actually the first night in weeks that I not only wanted but actually needed a sheet over me toward the morning hours to sleep comfortably. (On a related note: Some weeks ago, the extended nighttime heat motivated me to switch from sleeping on my summer lightweight mat to just sleeping on the bare tile floor. It helps.)
This morning I noticed that one of the overflow rain tubs, which typically sits empty, had a bit of water in it. Since the tub doesn’t sit perfectly level, one end was dry while the other end had a bit of water in it. A lizard had gotten stuck and was not able to climb out of the steep tub. I tried lowering the fill hose into the tub to provide the lizard with an exit ramp. However, the motion prompted him/her to scramble away, avoiding the hose rather than climbing up the “ramp.” And the scrambling took Lizard away from the dry end of the tub, and back into the deep end, where intensified flailing would resume.
I added a couple of short lengths of bamboo. Hopefully Lizard finds their way out. This was a few minutes ago and I will go check now to make sure the stranded friend has escaped from the tub. (Update: Yes!)
It struck me that in our lives, the universe is constantly trying to provide us with assistance in the form of little metaphorical ramps and sticks. But often our immediate instinct is to flail and scramble and run away from the helping hand. Next time I catch myself doing this, I’m going to stop and remember the flailing lizard! And once again thank the angels and ancestors.