o the dreadful wind and rain

So, today was our twenty-seventh consecutive day of rain, and although it's possible tomorrow may be dry, otherwise the forecast for next week has us on track to break the recorded high of 33 days in a row. There are mudslides and floods and sinkholes, and quite a few windstorm-induced power outages (we lost power on Christmas Day for nine hours, and on New Year's Day for about five). The governor has declared a state of emergency to deal with the damage from the rains. I know people think Seattle's rainy all the time, but it's really not; cloudy damp days of intermittent drizzle are typical, but the summers are gorgeous, and even in autumn and winter, long stretches of heavy rain are unusual. I've seen the sun exactly once in the last two weeks--it came out for a glorious few hours three days ago, then succumbed to more storm clouds. (Incidentally, the sunny day was also Eid al-Adha-- a belated Eid Mubarak to those who celebrate it!) My love for my hometown is being tested to the limits; being unemployed and stressed and desperately missing one's friends is tiresome enough, but being all those things and having perpetually damp feet is just too much.

Everything--sea, sky, air--seems to be continually grey, so I cheered myself up by purchasing some very colorful shoes I couldn't really afford in the sale at John Fluevog. I am going about dressed in my own personal form of protest against the weather. And I am making plans and looking for plane tickets; I'll be leaving this damp city for the frozen East before long.