duck-shaped pain

2000-09-09
Where I Wash Some Sweaters For No Good Reason

I was so ready for crappy weather today. I really wanted it to be very cloudy and gloomy and overcast, but today is about as sunny a day as they come. This whole week has been a continual battle between the light and dark sides of weather, with dark in the lead. It was incredibly rainy (for here) the last few days, and I wanted it to be that way today.

Rainy days, especially on weekends, are perfect excuses to spend the entire day inside, drinking many cups of coffee, wearing sweaters, making big pots of soup and reading ALL DAY. I was so prepared for this -- I washed some sweaters, bought stuff to make my favorite red pepper soup, and had several reading options lined up -- but it then it turned out to be a nice day. Bleah.

The thing that baffles me about pining for a rainy Saturday is that when I lived in Oregon, every day (at least from September to about March) was a rainy Saturday, even if it was Tuesday, and too much rain for too long a time drove me absolutely bugfuck.

Rainy days are relatively rare around here, though, which accounts for their appeal. People who have never been to Colorado are always surprised to find out how relentlessly sunny it is here -- these same people tend to think it snows here year round, which is far from the truth. My town gets about 320 days of a year, which seems a little low -- I don't think I could identify 45 days in the last year where it was not sunny.

(I must note that sunny does not mean warm. When I was living in Oregon, my friend S. (who also moved to Oregon from Colorado and lasted less than two months up there) and I once identified our favorite type of typical Colorado day. These are the days when, if you look outside, it's so sunny that you can't believe it -- the sky is bright, bright blue , not a cloud in sight. You think, hey, no coat for me today -- it's sunny!, but, when you step outside, you find that it's 5 degrees below zero. These days usually happen in January.)

Sun is good, but it's not really amenable to hiding out, drinking coffee and reading all day. Sunny days make you feel like a slacker for being inside -- you feel the need to hike or raft or garden or even just walk around aimlessly, just because it's nice outside. It tricks you into thinking that this weather is a rare treat you have to make the most of, because you never know when it might end. But it never ends. [1]


[1] More than one person has blamed the weather for the fact that Colorado does not produce very many good bands. Instead of holing up in your living room or garage and pouring out all your frustrations into song, the weather compels you to go outside and work off that energy in a kayak instead, or so the theory goes. You don't get the proper space for true introspection when the sun is beating down on you all day. Whether this is actually true or not, I can't really say.

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