Steamboat Pilot & Today

I've always liked rainy days.

I liked them when I was a child and they got me out of a day working on the farm, and when I was a teenager and they got me out of mowing the lawn. I liked them in college when they were an excuse not to go to class, and when I first entered the real working world, I still liked them.

There's something therapeutic about a rainy day. It's like the whole world slows down, and in some cases, gets flat-out paused.

As an adult, I feel they give me a chance to catch up on all the things I want to get done. There's never been a better time to read a book than on a rainy day - never a better time to tackle an indoors project, watch a movie or take a nap.

Even when the world keeps turning, rain can be a welcome addition. Nothing thins out fair-weather fans at a college football game faster than a downpour, and I always got a perverse sense of accomplishment walking away after a game so soaked, my hands felt like raisins.

I'm a big fan of storms, too. Though I actually never saw one of the twisting beasts, I grew up in the heart of tornado alley. Thunderstorms were a way of life - sometimes an everyday occurrence during April, May and June.

Taking a peek out the window to see beautiful mountains certainly is a great way to greet every day here in Colorado. Kansas may be flatter than a pancake, but thanks to spring storms, it could prove to be just as car-stoppingly beautiful. There's little in the Yampa Valley that can match the sight of a massive thunderhead, its great, brilliantly white clouds billowing thousands of feet into and standing at a stunning contrast to a dark and ominous sky.

There's an excitement, too, to a big storm. The deafening thunder and stunning lighting can make for a heart-stopping show.

So it makes sense I would have loved the last week in Steamboat Springs. Sure, there are no neck-craningly massive thunderheads here, little lightning and comparatively mild thunder. But it seems like it has rained every day for a month. As a guy who loves rain, what's not to love?

Only something's different. My 15 months in Steamboat have changed me a lot of ways. I'm incalculably better at skiing, and I know the difference between terms such as classic and skate and hardtail and full.

I moved here from a suburb where it took hours to walk to anywhere anyone would want to go. Now, I hike all over the place without a second thought.

And maybe those are the reasons - the skiing, the biking, the hiking and everything else I've come to love spending my free time on - that I changed in a way I never expected.

We just suffered through weeks of rainy days, and I didn't like a moment of it.