Walking. With a Google Misfire.

~ Live & Learn

3:30 a.m. Rain patters on the roof.

Morning papers. Blog posts. Emails. I flip through the final chapters of Sarah Manguso’s Very Cold People. (Well written, disjointed, disappointing. Several hours of my life I won’t get back.)

And poof, several hours pass. Just like that.

Google:  “54° F. Wind Gusts up to 42 mph. Light rain. Hard rain in 55 minutes.”  54° F, on Feb 18? Say what?  Hard rain in 55 min. Bah! When were you ever this precise? There’s time.

Light rain sprinkles as I make my way around the park. Wind gusts, at my back, are as forecasted.

But “Hard Rain?” None.

It’s been 655 days. 655 almost-consecutive-days on these morning Cove Island Park walks. Like almost 655 days in a row, and not one day have I been caught out in a rain storm.

I’m out at the farthest point in the park.

The wind is no longer gusting. It’s just blowing.  I glance at my watch and it’s been 36 minutes.

The sky darkens. The wind shifts up another gear.

And here it comes. Damn.

I tuck the camera under my coat and begin to run back to the car, off path, short-cut.  I sink in the wet mud, which is suctioning my boots. I clop-clop-clop forward.  Slow down Man, you’re going to take a header.

Rain, now falls in sheets. No hat. No gloves. I’m drenched. No point running any longer.

I slow down and walk.

It’s February. The Rain. It’s Warm. It’s just…what? I paused for a moment to think about it. It just felt amazing.

I get into the car, check my watch. I shift in the seat, undershirt and underwear having sponged up the rain. I sit there marinating.

43 minutes.

Google, you got it wrong again.

Notes:

37 thoughts on “Walking. With a Google Misfire.”

  1. Marinating…. Perfect word for today. Thanks. It rained here yesterday and I couldn’t remember when I had last heard that sound. Today we marinate on our hill encased in ice.

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  2. It’s nuts that it is so warm. We had rain all day yesterday that around 10 pm turned to ice hitting the windows, winds blowing at 40mph. Overnight, it changed to snow. This morning, the drifts of snow on my walkway were a b*** to shovel. A foot. My snow removal guy didn’t come until 8:30 (time I start work – and I have to go in because I don’t have the sign up saying the office is closed.) and it was either plough through the snow (made higher as I pushed the snow away from the garage – the guy can only come so close) or wait. I chose to wait. It’s a 5-minute drive, even in snow… Now? It’s picture-postcard-pretty (at least, that is what I am telling myself!!) I’m working till 11, then from home. (It’s 14F, feels like -2 here… never as warm as you guys have it!)

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          1. Still… This evening we’ll be at 9, Mind you, still feeling like -2 so the windchill is not too bad. The warmest we are supposed to get is on Monday, at 37. Pfft. February blows.

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  5. Rain? Monday a Chinook blew in. Zero snow on the ground. We got dumped on Wednesday. Yesterday it went 8 digits to the plus side. Tomorrow it’s predicted to go to double digits below freezing (i.e. -15C (5F)

    Yup. I’ll take the rain please. Oh. And Spring too! Not even the most foolhardy of buds would dare to pop their heads out until at least April!

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  7. I wasn’t a fan of Mancuso’s book either…655 days in a row, and you are either grumbling at the number of days you’ve been out there or awed by it – or both. I for one go with amazing…and this morning’s photos are moody and and full of nuance…Hmmm…kinda like my pal.

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  8. I love, love the rain and it doesn’t bother me at all to be out in it, and sounds like you enjoyed it once you came to accept it, but I’m sure you were worried about your camera – looks like your moody pics survived the deluge

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