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Thursday, April 1, 1999
Walked - 0 miles It's raining! Tucson is one place where people get excited about rain. We are so far behind this year which makes it even nicer. We had a potluck at work, so we sat there eating all that great food and watched the rain come and and enjoyed the gray skies and the cloud covered mountains. How nice. We are at 41 degrees now and it will go lower. On April 1st. Can you believe that? I really should move to San Francisco because I love foggy days. I think Seattle or Portland might be just a little too wet. I do miss those days when everything is misty and cold and you have to dress warm and cozy. I love going for a walk in that kind of weather. Sometimes I get tired of sunshine. I have some sheepskin boots that are the most comfortable shoes. You wear them without socks and they just cuddle your feet. Unfortunately, they are so warm that in Tucson I can wear them about three, four days a year. Such a waste. I enjoy wool and fluffy sweaters and there isn't that much call for them here. I know I'd get tired of of grey but on days like this I remember that fog and rain have their own pleasure. I remember walking through the leaves in Arkansas when I was in grade school. They were matted down by the autumn rain and the trees waggled the few decrepid leaves that hadn't fallen. I was soon soaked but, even though it was cold, I didn't really pay much attention. That was just the way it was, and I enjoyed walking through the fog and gloom too much to care. In Iowa I walked along the river, being careful to not slip on the wet banks. Everything looked so washed and clean but rather bedraggled. It was great when you heard the birds still chirping despite the rain. The temperature and rain seemed much the same as in Mexico where we lived when we were children, but the vegetation is entirely different. We were in the semi tropics in Mexico but at such a high altitude and where we would catch the northers coming down from the plains and across the gulf in the winter, that it got quite chilly at times. In Iowa the rain just was there while in Mexico we could see it coming across the mountains. I think that part of what I remember about rain was all the vegetation and that is part of what I remember about places with more rain than the sonoran desert. Even in the fall and winter, you knew the ground was soaking up the moisture and would result in green and color. But, while it's still grey and misty and cold, there is a magic of covering up the ordinary, even while bringing out the drabness and the discomfort of those who have to be out in it, unlike those of us who enjoy walking in the rain. There is probably nothing more enchanted that a misty evening with the street lights on, but if you look past the street lights you see the pinched faces and bowed heads of those who struggle through the rain unwillingly. A rainy day, like any day, is only what you make of it. And I didn't even get to walk today, but tomorrow is suppose to be nice and rainy also.
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