Plum Rain

Could have been an alternate title to the Prince album, but as I learned today, it's the name for the rains that fall across Taiwan from April to June. It's going to pour down rain for a couple of weeks, and after that the sticky heat will be miserable until mid-September except for a couple days here and there when the odd typhoon brings low pressure and a soothing blanket of cool air.

The Dragon Boat Festival was Wedensday. No trips to the harbor to watch the races, no zhong-zi eating contest. I even forgot to unwrap Franklin's xiang-bao until late in the evening. Nope. Dragon Boat Festival just isn't like it was when I was a kid.

As I was sitting with my family at brunch on Wednesday, Maggie told me another tidbit about the rain. The rain that falls between the hours of 11 and 1 on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month has magical medicinal powers. The story goes, that folks wtih bad skin should run outside naked and the precipitation will wash away their warts.