Blame it on me: My song made it rain

Lew K. Cohn, Managing Editor

The Highlander

I confess. I think I am the one originally responsible for all of this rain in Burnet County.

It started innocently enough. The cast was in the middle of performances for “Annie Get Your Gun” when it was also auditions for the Hill Country Community Theatre's Talent Show. I decided to try out and my act would be playing my guitar and singing.

I had many different song options from which to choose. I play rock, pop, blues, country, alternative and even Jewish camp songs.

I was only supposed to play one song for the audition, and I narrowed down my choices to four: “My Hometown” by Charlie Robison, “Baby I Love Your Way” by Peter Frampton, “Alabama” by Cross Canadian Ragweed and “Have You Ever Seen The Rain?” by Credence Clearwater Revival. I chose the last one.

It's a song that I know the chorus well and the beginning, but not so much the second verse, so I played it while reading my sheet music. Everyone seemed to like it; I thought I heard some of my fellow musicians singing along with me as I performed.

“That's great, Lew!” I heard Seth Smith, one of the emcee's for the show, say after I finished. We started to talk about when the show would be and what time I needed to be at the theater. After that, my focus was back on three things: my wife, this newspaper and getting through the run of the musical.

I didn't think much about my song choice for the audition until a week or so ago when it started to rain. And then it rained more. A lot more. So much so that we had flooding on our street, which intersects with a creek with a low-water crossing that forced me to find an alternate route to work a couple of days.

The average rainfall in Marble Falls for August is 1.82 inches. We nearly had that in less than 24 hours just last Monday, Aug. 15. In the last week, it has rained 5.11 inches in Marble Falls and a total of 6.05 inches for the month, according to The Weather Channel.

Burnet, you've had it even worse. In the past week, you've had nearly eight inches of rain and a total of 9.39 inches for the month, again according to The Weather Channel.

The talent show was held this past Saturday, Aug. 20. Not wanting to be responsible for another deluge, I changed my song to “Alabama” and I left the theater safe in the knowledge that a crisis had been averted.

It rained this past Sunday anyway, so now I don't know what to think. Maybe my song choice didn't have anything to do with Burnet County having one of its wettest Augusts in a long time.

Or maybe it rained because I didn't play Credence Clearwater Revival.

Well played, weather. Well played.