The Florida Room tanning salon on Cold Spring Lane was one of few places yesterday where the continuing bad weather was good news.
Unable to get a natural (or au naturel) fix, more sun addicts than usual have been paying $6 to $8 for a 20-minute blast of artificial light -- and yesterday, the midpoint of the Memorial Day holiday weekend, there was more light indoors than down at the ocean.
"Customers come in and say, `I have to get my tan here because I can't get it at the beach,'" said Meaghan Slattery, an employee at the Roland Park salon. "Not only because of the rainy weather but because it's been so cool. They're sick of waiting for the sun to come out."
During the past month, the region has done a convincing imitation of London at its grayest -- and despite a prediction that some sunshine would sneak through yesterday, cool and damp persevered. With heavier rain expected to move eastward across Maryland, flash flood warnings were posted last night.
Some people still can savor gray skies.
"This is a very good thing for a middle school teacher," said Amy Brown, 33, gesturing heavenward yesterday afternoon as she attended Lax Fest -- a celebration of all things lacrosse -- at the Inner Harbor's Rash Field with her husband, Bill, and 6-year-old son Jason.
In good weather, said Amy Brown, who teaches sixth-graders in Carroll County, her pupils "go wild." From her perspective, the rotten weather could hold for three more weeks, until school lets out.
"So much for the beginning of summer," said Bill Brown, who described his family as "diehard lacrosse fans." Jason has been playing since he was 3 years old, and they had attended part of the weekend's NCAA championships, which conclude today at M&T Bank Stadium.
At the shore, the weather seemed to dampen, but not devastate, the holiday weekend turnout.
On the Ocean City beach about noon, 250 volunteers unfurled a football field-size American flag to pay tribute to the armed forces. The "Big Flag Wave" was supposed to take place Saturday, but rain postponed the event a day.
"We haven't had a washout," said Donna Abbott, spokeswoman for the Ocean City Department of Tourism.
"Did the weather affect the weekend overall? Probably a little bit," she said. "It's not perfect beach weather, but coming to Ocean City is a Memorial Day tradition."
But the rain did chill some Boardwalk businesses. "Friday was a complete washout," said Carl Hammond, co-manager of the Thrashers french fry stand. "It rained all day. Saturday was nowhere near what it could have been."
He said yesterday had been "OK." The problem was not just rain, but the lower-than-average temperatures. According to Hammond, summer showers don't deter business nearly as much, because many people don't mind getting wet when they're warm.
One bad-weather windfall was fewer traffic jams. According to Maryland Transportation Authority Police Cpl. Barry Poindexter, traffic across the Bay Bridge was much lighter than usual.
Despite the dampness, several hundred people turned out yesterday for the 17th annual Sowebo Arts Festival around Hollins Market -- and to some, the weather seemed positively idyllic.
Sowebo always seems to end up becoming So-Wet-Bo during the event held on the Sunday of every Memorial Day weekend.
"Usually we have a real heavy downpour," said Alison Valois, 28, who was working at the Fashion For Exstacy body-piercing booth.
"One year we had flooding. Then we had lightning, and I had to hold up the metal tent," Valois said, laughing. As of midafternoon, only a couple of people had gotten pierced. But Valois expected business to spike: "It doesn't pick up until the beer flows."
A funky combination of music, art, food and weirdness (one booth sold elaborately painted papier-mache skulls, for example), the Sowebo Festival seemed to attract visitors for whom rain was no impediment.
"This is what happens in springtime," said artist Conrad Bladey, standing on Hollins Street, beer can in hand. "Rain takes the dust away, it cleans up the streets. Just take out your umbrella."
Bladey had no need for an umbrella -- he was wearing a large hat, out of which bloomed about a dozen plastic hands. The hat went with his car, which was parked next to him: a 1990 Pontiac Grand Am covered with hundreds of outstretched hands -- a collection gathered from dolls and mannequins.
Bladey, a 50-year-old from Linthicum, has four such "art cars." This one was a shrine to helping hands, he said. Standing with him was his friend Neal Brooks, who wore an elaborate hat with a built-in horn -- another Bladey creation.
Brooks also was braving the droplets without an umbrella. "Nobody," he said, "ever got skin cancer from the rain."
