Nublado y llover

And now, the weather report…
Even though we are north of the equator, the Tico's refer to this as winter. To us, it’s the rainy season, which started in April and ends in December (or else).
We had to make a lot of tough choices on what to bring with us, and what to send in “the box” (…and NO, it is not here yet). The one essential item that Nancy packed to carry with us, above non-essentials like our Spanish phrases book or our Rosetta Stone CD’s or an extra pair of shoes, was a rain gauge. And the first thing she did when we moved in was to put it in the back yard.
Every morning I (Nancy) go out the back door to see how much "llover" we received the day before. In the first 21 days, we've had 7.5 inches of rain. The most we've had in one day is 1 inch. We've had 6 days with no rain and 4 days have had an inch. The rest are split between 1/2 inch rainfalls and .1 - .2 inches of rain. We've heard rumors that October is the climax of the rainy season and when the rain is constant and hard. Jim's boss even suggested to me that October would be a good time for me to visit my family in the States.
The weather can change in an instant. It can be pouring in one place and perfectly dry a mile away. On the whole it is "nublado" everyday. But even the clouds come and go. When we look across the valley towards Escazu, it seems like it is usually cloudy. The clouds get trapped in by the southern mountain. My guess is that they have had more than 7 inches of rain in the last 3 weeks, while I got to see a rainbow over Escazu.
The temperatures are quite constant. The highs are between 75 and 80 and the lows are around 65. Everyday. We only have air conditioning in our bedroom but we haven't used it yet. The humidity is noticeable but not stifling (unless you’re hiking up a mountain). (Or maybe that is just my 51 year old female body).
Nancy used her new found Spanish skills to hire some workers to mow our grass. She even managed to get them to cut the price they were going to charge…inadvertently. They’re supposed to be back in two weeks. Most of the time we see people mowing with string trimmers, but our experts used a regular push mower. (I know this must seem very mundane to North Americans in early summer, but we like to marvel at the fact that Nancy accomplished something tangible with her Spanish.)