Precipitation

It's raining. It's been raining ever since I arrived in this town. Six-and-a-half inches, my dad reports as he does his periodic check on the rain gauge outside that I've never cared to look for or notice. Half a foot of water in two and a half days, with no sign of ceasing soon.

Rain, rain, go away
Darken someone else's day.

There's something about this town. I don't really know how to describe it, or if there's anything there at all to describe. What I do feel, though is that there is some vibe, some aura, some unique feeling to this town that makes it feel like a perfect accomplice to the weather that has plagued this place since I returned on Saturday afternoon.

See, my town is one of the last industrial towns in this state and most of the products here come from the ground. First, we have Chemtura, formerly Great Lakes Chemical Company. Basically, it made a plethora of chemicals and refined products out of brine, most of which were bromine oriented (Halon, fire retardants, so forth). Then, we have El Dorado Chemical Company. I don't know what in the hell these guys do, something with nitrates though. Kaboom. The only thing this town really needs. Oh, then there's Cooper tire plant here. Prescolite does some electrical crap, and Hubbell, the lighting fixture place, has a few big buildings somewhere where some people go to do some thing. Finally, there is the company in El Dorado that has a habit of blowing up every couple of years. Ensco as it was known when dad worked there, Terris as its known now after a buyout by some French company. Basically, Terris/Ensco serves as the colon for this industrial hub and processes the waste (Usually through incineration).

Finally, there's Lion Oil, this state's richest palindrome. Ha! You get it now! Lion Oil, Lio Noil. Anyways, this thing has been the lifeblood for some time in this town, as they continuously expand, rebuild, and branch out not only bringing in workers and revenue, but also by hiring local contractors and such to help them out. I work for their pipeline over the summer, it's called Lion Oil Trading and Transportation. LOTT is a subsidiary of Lion Oil Refinery, and LOR is a subsidiary of some big energy trust-type company in Jackson by the name of Ergon. Ergon doesn't completely own the LOR/LOTT setup though, just enough to completely fuck us over should they ever decide to dump the stock.

This is where I get to my point. This town has a big ego for a shrinking town. We want more banks, more chains, more stores, more big highways. People seem to forget this town is dying, and dying quickly. Maybe it's a combination of industrial-town blues as well as a deathbed regretting that has gripped this town hard. Maybe it's that they realize we're in Arkansas and so far secluded from the rest of the state we're practically insignificant. Maybe it's that there's this collective remembrance of the glory days of the 20s, when oil was everywhere, new towns like Norphlet and Smackover sprung up over night, and El Dorado was as big as Little Rock and far richer.

I don't know. I just have to cope with it. So I read and read and read, and hope that the rain washes whatever it is in this town away.