The cows are laying down-it's gonna rain

My dad and James have been on my mind a lot lately. Actually, they pretty much always are. But, with James' birthday yesterday and Father's Day on Sunday, they have pretty much been the only thing on my mind.

Like most places, we have been having some weird weather. It has been downright cold and nasty lately. All of the dreariness got me thinking about a couple of incidents that happened several years ago; the first involving James and I and the second involving James, Dad and myself. Despite the gloom outside, the memory has brought a smile to my face several times over the past few days.

There is an old farmer's tale that if the cows are laying down, it is going to rain. James and I were out for a drive one afternoon on a fairly decent day. We passed a field and I noticed the cows were laying down. So, I said it was going to rain. Being the city boy that he was, James had never heard about weather predicting cows and assumed that I had heard that on the news. I explained to him it was going to rain because the cows were laying down.

Of course he immediately had to poke holes in what was one of the most ridiculous things he had ever heard. And I, of course, had an answer for everything. He thought the cows were just tired. I adamantly said that it was going to rain. He wanted to know what it meant if only some of the cows were laying down. I told him it was only going to rain a little bit. (Yeah, I was stretching on that one). Nonetheless, he was not convinced that whether or not cows lay down or stand up has anything to do with the weather. The next time we were out and about on a rainy day, he pointed out that the cows were not laying down therefore disproving my theory. I told him that it was already raining so there was no need for them to let us know the rain was on the way.

The next time we were visiting my dad, we were driving back to his house when we passed a field where the cows were laying down. Dad said it was going to rain. Having noticed the cows, I asked Dad why he said that. He said "the cows are laying down." James was convinced I had put Dad up to it, which I had not done. It took quite a bit of convincing until James finally believed that I had not said anything about the cows to Dad ahead of time.

I don't remember if it actually rained either one of those times, but this is the Northwest, so odds are good that it did. I know James never believed that if the cows are laying down it is going to rain. To be honest, I am not really sure if it is true either but I like to believe it is. After all, I passed a field yesterday and all the cows were standing up. And what do you know? The sun finally came out today.