Ohhh the sound of Rain...

I love that sound. And fortunately for me, I get to hear it a lot in Seattle. You know the sound? The sound of big rain drop pelting the landscape. Refreshing the world. And the smell...that sweet smell of clean air. The smell of cold rain hitting the warmed earth. Its just heaven.

In my old apartment, when it rained I had a symphony outside. I backed up to a green belt so could hear the rain hitting the trees. It was harmonious. And I felt more comfortable sleeping with my windows cracked open in that location too...so I got to hear an amplified version.

Now, in the new apartment, I've got nothing. I can barely tell when its raining outside - with the rare exception of when the rain is accompanied by thunder and hail. A couple of weeks ago we had sun, hard rain, thunder, hard hail, thunder, and more hard rain, and finally sun within 20 minutes. They say if you don't like the weather in Seattle, wait 5 minutes. So I purchased myself a nature sound alarm clock.

This alarm clock has 6 sounds:
Rain Forest - Sounds like bugs, monkeys and snakes, none of which I want near me...kinda creeps me out
Summer night - The crickets are nice, but I have no idea what the other sounds are, so it creeps me out
Ocean - soothing, but too anxious
Waterfall - Sounds like white noise to me so makes me nervous
Thunder - Very soothing. In fact, they should mix this with the Rain sound and of course...RAIN. Oh the sweet gentle sound of rain drops.

Its "high tech" and has a timer on it so I can put the noise on for how ever long I want. And so I've been experimenting. I know, from past experience of watching the clock, it typically takes me 30-45 minutes to fall asleep. So I started at 60 minutes. I never heard the sound turn off. Now I set it for 15 and I never hear the sound turn off.

I'm falling asleep almost immediately...and sleeping soundly too.

The alarm portion of this clock has a couple different options. I can wake to "a" sound, to the radio or to a "buzzer". Waking to a sound that puts me to sleep didn't work.

The radio is old and tired to me. So I thought I'd try the "buzzer". Now my previous clock's buzzer woke the dead, so I was skeptical. But, calling this noise a "buzzer" is really not very accurate. The "wake up sound" as I call it, is a soft gentle beep. Just enough to coax me out of my slumber. I got to sleep in peace and I wake up in peace. Its amazing. Everyone should get one.

Oh and it has the crazy blue light that if it is turned on it puts the time on the ceiling in a spooky blue light. The time, though, is upside down, and I can't figure out how to make it readable..either way it kinda creeps me out.
I think I am officially a true Seattle-lite...I LOVE the sound of rain.