It would be OK with Dick Fahey if the rain stopped now. Right now.

Please.

As superintendent at Prospect Hill Golf Course in Auburn, he’s spent weeks grooming and re-grooming the sand traps, shoveling and hand-raking sand only to have it wash away, again. He’s watched the fairways flood – holes 2, 6 and 10 were virtual ponds Monday. And he’s struggled to deal with moisture-fueled black algae that’s suffocating his grass.

“The problem is, you can’t treat it until it’s been dry,” he said. “And it hasn’t been dry.”

Portland normally gets 3.3 inches of rain in July, according to the National Weather Service.

Last month, it got 4.7.

As Julys go, this one wasn’t a record breaker. (That title goes to July 1915, which saw 10.8 inches of rain.) But Portland did break rain records on two days last month, the 18th, with 1.1 inches and the 24th, with 1.7 inches.

So far, this August is looking just as wet. Sunday saw a veritable deluge: 2.8 inches, just short of the 3 inches that are normal for the entire month.

For businesses and recreation spots that rely on sunshine, this summer hasn’t been the best.

“It’s been a nightmare,” said Peter Wallingford, owner of Wallingford’s Fruit House in Auburn.

The rain was great for his 3,000 apple trees at first. Then it kept coming. And coming. And coming.

His orchards are so flooded now that he can’t drive through them. The rain constantly washes off the fungicide he’s sprayed.

If the extra rain keeps up, he’s afraid his apples will grow too big too quickly, giving them a shorter life. He worries the rain will also trick his trees into growing past their season, ultimately harming them come winter.

“We were very dry at the end of June and we needed a couple of inches of rain,” he said. “We’ve had seven or eight times that by now.”

At Auburn Parks and Recreation, the outdoor Tuesday concerts and outdoor Saturday movies have fared well – only one rainy day between them. But day camp hasn’t been so lucky.

“They’re in, they’re out, they’re in, they’re out,” said Parks and Recreation Director Pete Bushway. “It keeps the staff on their toes.”

A regional track meet was canceled Thursday because of thunder and lightning. The adult softball program has been rained out so often it’s getting harder and harder to find available days for makeup games.

But the hardest thing for the department is keeping up with the grass.

“Right now we’re mowing as if it were the end of April, the beginning of May,” Bushway said. “The grass is growing fast. Puts a little stress on the crew, but that’s the way it goes. You can’t beat Mother Nature.”

Not everyone would even want to try. At Flagship Cinemas in Lewiston, rain means a booming business.

The theater normally gets 150 to 200 people for its weekday afternoon movies. Lately, it’s seen double, most of them campers from out-of-town, overnight summer camps.

“One just came from near Augusta,” said General Manager Anthony Santiago. “It’s a big field trip, two huge charter buses.”

The movie theater can likely expect business to stay good, at least for the next few days: The National Weather Service is calling for wet weather at least through Friday.

That means more headaches for Fahey at Prospect Hill, but at least he’s got some diehard customers.

“Some of them have been diligent,” he said. “They’ve stayed out there and played in the rain.”