Okay, we’ve all complained about the noise: barking dogs, screaming kids, bands practicing, leaf blowers, screw-ball musicians practicing all night long and neighbors’ sound systems in both houses and cars. Some, recently (probably newbies experiencing their first “rainy season” here) are whining about the thunder that sounds like the lightning is ripping through the house.

By now those local residents complaining about barking dogs, garage bands practicing through dinner, bottle rockets, kids screaming at 11 p.m. on the sidewalk, soccer balls being kicked against their gates, moving political rallies with loudspeakers on wheels, and all the usual ambient racket of Mexico should have new perspectives this week.

As a “newbie” in Mexico, and raised in the wet Pacific Northwest, I was astonished when the librarian at the American School where I worked predicted the exact date of the beginning of the rainy season (St. Anthony’s Day). The rains actually began on that day! The downpours were so regular (every afternoon and again in the middle of the night) that picnics could be planned around them. This was definitely not the case in Seattle where nearly every picnic that I can remember was rained upon.