Snowballs and Midday Showers
January 25, 2006
A year ago I was suffering through another New York winter. It was cold and snowy. Six months ago I was finishing up a cross country trip. Now I’m sitting in my living room in Africa.
I miss the snow. Snow is a lot of fun until it turns black. I remember one night when it started to snow and by the next morning we had three feet on the ground. It was the first time they had cancelled school in like fifteen years. I woke up that morning, looked outside and thought, “Holy cow! I hope there’s no school today!” Instead of working we hiked in the woods, threw snowballs, and built snowmen.
We had a couple of serious rainstorms on our trip across country. We were in the south. The rain came down in great sheets that slowed traffic to a crawl for miles at a time. The windshield wipers couldn’t work fast enough. Just when I started to think that maybe we should pull over and wait it out it, it let up. It was exhilarating; the surprise of the rain, the intensity of its fall, and the suddenness of its end. I felt like I needed a cigarette.
The weather here holds no surprises. Clouds gather, but no rain falls unless it’s the rainy season. Outside of the rainy season, there is the cool season, the Harmatan season, and the ohmygod it couldn’t possibly get any hotter season. If we are not in the rainy season there is no rain. Every day is sunny, blue sky, wispy clouds. It’s a little boring. I miss the surprise of opening the curtains and seeing snow or the sudden clap of thunder that announces an afternoon shower.
MJR
A year ago I was suffering through another New York winter. It was cold and snowy. Six months ago I was finishing up a cross country trip. Now I’m sitting in my living room in Africa.
I miss the snow. Snow is a lot of fun until it turns black. I remember one night when it started to snow and by the next morning we had three feet on the ground. It was the first time they had cancelled school in like fifteen years. I woke up that morning, looked outside and thought, “Holy cow! I hope there’s no school today!” Instead of working we hiked in the woods, threw snowballs, and built snowmen.
We had a couple of serious rainstorms on our trip across country. We were in the south. The rain came down in great sheets that slowed traffic to a crawl for miles at a time. The windshield wipers couldn’t work fast enough. Just when I started to think that maybe we should pull over and wait it out it, it let up. It was exhilarating; the surprise of the rain, the intensity of its fall, and the suddenness of its end. I felt like I needed a cigarette.
The weather here holds no surprises. Clouds gather, but no rain falls unless it’s the rainy season. Outside of the rainy season, there is the cool season, the Harmatan season, and the ohmygod it couldn’t possibly get any hotter season. If we are not in the rainy season there is no rain. Every day is sunny, blue sky, wispy clouds. It’s a little boring. I miss the surprise of opening the curtains and seeing snow or the sudden clap of thunder that announces an afternoon shower.
MJR
posted by Bronx to Timbuktu at 1:59 PM
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