BETWEEN THE LINES: LACK OF RAIN THIS SUMMER BRINGS LONGING FOR GOOD CRY

I decided to try a trick that has always worked before. I washed my car.

I've done everything but a rain dance, and still there hasn't been a single drop of rain hit the grounds of Southeast Missouri for more days than I can count.

Oh, how I wish it would rain -- and I don't think I'm alone.

Farmers across the country are experiencing one of the worst droughts in years. Corn crops are shriveling up, beans and wheat prices won't be anything near what they should, and people along the East Coast are recycling bath water for use in their gardens.

Things aren't as bad as all that here, but they could be soon. It's been too dry for too long.

The gravel roads on the route to my dad's house were so dry that my car was covered in an inch of dust by the time I arrived at his farm. And riding in a car without air conditioning means that even the inside of my car was covered in a layer of gravel dust.

So I decided to do what has always worked before: I washed my car.

Every other time I have washed my car, the following day's weather forecast included rain. No such luck this time.

I've even left my car windows rolled down for days, hoping that it might rain. Not a drop.

Meanwhile, south Texas roads were flooded from a hurricane, and another storm hit the Carolinas. Maybe we'll get lucky with Hurricane Dennis and feel some of the rain here.

Earlier this summer, a co-worker told me that it felt like the world needed to cry. We were in the early stages of our summer heat wave, and rain would have been a welcome relief.

It feels like that again. Crying doesn't necessarily make things any better, but it makes you feel better for having done it.

I think it's about time the earth had a good, long cry.

I'd welcome a day filled with rain, but whether we'll get that much-needed and much-anticipated rain shower anytime soon is still unknown. Weather predictions for a chance or rain have been hollow words recently.

But the Farmers' Almanac already is predicting a wet winter for the Midwest. November and December should be stormy months, the almanac says, and a foot of snow should fall in the last week of the year.

I once said that I'd rather have snow than days of rain, but after a freak blizzard late in March I think I've changed my mind. More rain than snow might not be bad after all. Editor Peter Geiger said the almanac correctly predicted that snowfall for Chicago and the 1 1/2 feet of snow that hit St. Louis and the eastern part of the country in January.

Not that I'm complaining or anything, but maybe we need the equivalent of that foot of precipitation now and not in November or December. Unfortunately, the Farmer's Almanac has been right in 80 percent of its predictions for the last 183 years.

I didn't do the math, but I think that's a better percentage than most TV weather forecasters. Maybe I'll check the Farmers' Almanac for today's forecast.

~Laura Johnston is a copy editor for the Southeast Missourian.