Blame Global Warming

The weather 'round these parts has been excessively gloomy for May. Usually, we're preparing for 3 straight months of 90-degree temperatures by this time. Of course, that would require the sun to come out. It's been overcast and rainy for a week or more; very unpleasant.


Back in my college days, we used to call this kind of weather "Orwellian," because it conjured up images of 1984 in our heads. And in our own perverse way, we enjoyed it; the opaque sky seemed so much more frought with meaning and tension than any merely sunny day ever could. And there are still pleasures to be gained from the cloudy days. Conversations are more muted; there isn't any particular rush about one's tasks, and at the end, you tend to curl up in a chair with a book or a movie and enjoy the comforts of shelter. At the same time, I know what it is to miss the sun. One needs days to run happily between heaven and earth.