Rain we love

It's been raining most of the day, but here in the desert climate of southwest Idaho, we don't complain when it rains. My bro Dave and I were reminiscing about humidity when it rains and we're taking weather measurements on a lookout tower. Dave spent two or three summers on U.S. Forest Service lookout towers in Montana, and I spent two years on a lookout tower east of Mount Rainier in forested country protected by the State Department of Natural Resources.

Everybody knows that when it's raining, the humidity is 100 percent, right? So on our respective weather stations, we would enter 100 percent humidity line for the weather report without going through the steps to take a more accurate measurement. I can't remember the procedure, but it took a few minutes to complete, and why bother when it was raining since it was going to be 100 percent anyway?

Not necessarily. It's 100% humidity where the raindrops are being formed, but on their way to earth the drops of water go through relatively dry air until it has rained so much that the air is saturated with water. That's the only time it's 100 percent humidity. Dave's experience on a lookout was several years before mine, but we both took the same shortcut until otherwise instructed by those in charge of our work.

I've re-injured my wrist. Not seriously, but moving mattresses, bookcases, filing cabinets, desks, chairs, and boxes of books has taken its toll. I'm wearing the brace again, and it gets in my way and sets me up for more errors while I'm running the keyboard.