I Was So Much Older Then

One of the things I like about getting out, whether that be running or cycling, is the questions that come from nowhere and float around aimlessly. Sometimes they are just reminders of how limited is my knowledge of natural history, e.g. what is that bird or plant? Sometimes they are more like a regression to childhood as they are the sort of thing a toddler would ask, viz today:

The weather forecast said there would be heavy showers but when I set out the sky was blue and I thought I might be lucky. In a sense I was because the really heavy rain, in the sense of a large volume of water, fell after I had finished but I did go through a small shower. Although there was not much water in total, the drops of water were very large and they splattered over me like over-ripe blueberries (without the staining - obviously).

“Does heavy rain refer to the size and weight of the raindrops?” was my first question, which was something I could work out for myself. The next questions though were my toddler’s questions: “what makes raindrops big”, “what is the range of droplet size”, and “what is the maximum size”? I did not know the answers but felt somehow I ought to.

Back home I looked up some references. Appropriately most of the sites were written for children but I found the answers e.g. here.

One of the selling points of running, or any other fitness regime, is that it keeps you fitter and therefore helps you to look and feel younger. I’m not sure it has had that effect on me (in fact i know it hasn’t) but obviously, mentally, it has given me the outlook of a three year old.