It’s raining. Often, and so much. This is rain with goal, intention, and stamina. We haven’t needed to high up the birdbaths since October, and if anybody round right here had been Dreaming of a Wet Christmas, they received their want. There’s no rolling a good snowman out of any of this, however right here in western Oregon, we’re not complaining. In reality, we’d been somewhat apprehensive about whether or not we’d get our rain in any respect.
Who can inform? It appears as if all world wide, these days, everyone seems to be getting another person’s climate, or getting their very own on the incorrect time of yr. Last June, we received some warmth that didn’t belong wherever you weren’t planning to bake a pizza. All the previous jokes in regards to the Oregon local weather – we don’t tan, we rust! – have been beginning to sound quaint, like one thing your great-grandmother rattled on about whilst you smiled indulgently.
Last I checked, we had three umbrellas in our coat closet. They’re not ours. Like lots of longtime residents, we don’t personal one. Most of us don’t have a lot to guard: We’re a examine in flannel. We don’t costume up. If we’re going to the symphony, we simply attempt to bear in mind to take the bicycle clip off our pant leg.
Also, umbrellas are sort of a trouble: all that opening and shutting and shaking out and blowing away. If you’re going to get fussy about somewhat rain, you’ll by no means get something executed round right here. Just pull up your hood and get on along with your day.
Nevertheless, after any random social gathering we find yourself with an umbrella or two. They belong to the newcomers.
People have been transferring to the Pacific Northwest in droves over the previous few years, and the umbrellas include them. Umbrellas are an invasive species. Maybe we must always all get collectively for a celebration and swap issues round till all of us have our personal climate again. We may recuperate our lacking food-storage containers whereas we’re at it, and the umbrellas may discover their rightful properties.
I used to be a newcomer as soon as, too, however that was 45 years in the past. I used to be one of many lucky ones: It turned out I’d landed in the precise spot. I’d seen sufficient warmth and humidity to final me a lifetime. I get pleasure from sunshine, however – I’ve to confess – not as a lot as the subsequent individual. Somewhat of it goes a great distance with me. I prefer to order my ideas and phrases towards the mushy felt of an overcast sky. My creativeness is saved on an precise cloud.
The newcomers, a minimum of, don’t deliver their previous climate with them, however it’s doable they’d if they might. They normally preserve their recreation face on for a few months, however by January they’re beginning to squint up into the grey sky – regularly so low they will contact it – and marvel aloud if the occasional spot of sunshine can be an excessive amount of to ask. “Oh well,” they are saying, feigning pluck, “that’s what makes everything so nice and green.”
By February they’re holed up inside, anxiously attempting to hold on. By March, they’ve taken on a plaintive tone, and if nothing modifications by April, they begin to get downright ornery and attain for his or her baggage.
That, after all, offers us old-timers the chance to exhibit our composure. We suspect that the shortcoming to emotionally stand up to months of low gentle is an indication of weak spot of character, a weak spot we stalwarts don’t share – not in public, anyway. Our imperviousness to gloom is our personal peculiar advantage.
It was once we would grumble a bit amongst ourselves by the point April showers introduced, nicely, May showers, however with all these new individuals round, we’ve to shoulder our burden cheerfully. It units us aside.
Yes, we get somewhat smug about it, however we would simply as nicely. It was a tough summer season final yr, and we all know that ’tis higher to be smug and moist than by no means to be moist in any respect.
