Tuesday, April 3, 2018

Rainy Day

There is an app on my phone that tells me what the weather is because simply looking out my window isn’t enough in this technological day and age. 

Mostly it reports on current conditions, letting me know the temperature outside in either Fahrenheit or Celsius depending on how a setting has been toggled.  I don’t know how it toggles as I never tell it to do one thing or the other but it seems to toggle from the one to the other with some frequency and that’s just how it goes some days and what are you going to do about it is what I want to know.

There are times when it lets me know what’s coming up, which can be useful when the weather is not as perhaps one might wish it to be.  You can make plans, or simply accept what is coming with graceful foreknowledge.  It says, “Snow expected at 8:45pm” or “High winds until 3am.”  Or perhaps “Plagues of locusts, hordes of tornadoes, and other assorted irritants to be defined as necessary will visit you until such time as you stop worrying about them.”  You can never tell with the weather.  Wait a couple of minutes.  It will change.


Sometimes it just says, “Rain will continue.”

Rain will continue, yes my friends it will, with no particular end in sight.  It is simply the new State Of Things, and one must adjust to it for the foreseeable future.

It will rain on the just and the unjust, on the strong and the weak, on fields and flowers.  Rain will continue, reminding us that there is so much in the world that can only be adapted to and not controlled.

I like when it says things like that, because then I don’t need to worry about what is coming up because it’s going to look like what’s already coming down and I'm used to that by now.

You think to yourself, is that an observation, “Rain will continue,” or a command?

Not that it makes much of a difference to those on the ground, who get wet either way. 

It was a grey, misty, drizzly sort of day today, just a few degrees above freezing in both metric and American, and for a while I was wandering about in it trying to get from Here to There for certain values of Here and There that had a lot of space in between them.

The rain did in fact continue.

There’s a lesson in there, perhaps.

7 comments:

LucyInDisguise said...

Rain will continue, yes my friends it will, with no particular end in sight.

For, as they say, certain values of rain.

Actually, i think that one sentence may be one of the most profound thing you have written so far on this site. It sent me off in search …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK5G8fPmWeA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=DMMTPt4OtG4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foepOwQlXpI

Rain. I don’t mind.

Lucy

David said...

I actually like rainy days. They make you sit still and listen.

Good songs!

When Hurricane Gloria hit Philadelphia I was performing at a coffee house with the band I was in during college. It was a driving rainstorm, and you couldn't even see across the street. On the walk back to the dorm we sang every song we could think of that had the word "rain" or "sun" in the title. It was a lot of fun.

LucyInDisguise said...

List?

I was trying to come up with protest songs with the "rain" theme - missed an important one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIolT2Y37SU

And somehow, still appropriate. Must be. Look how many covers have been released recently.

Lucy

David said...

List? Sweet dancing monkeys on a stick, man! That was 32 years ago! I'm lucky to remember what I had for lunch today!

I think "Let the Sun Shine" was one of them. "Here Comes the Sun" was another. We may have segued into "MacArthur Park" at one point, which didn't actually have the word rain in the title but how can you resist a song about a soggy cake? There were more - it was a six-block walk in a driving rainstorm and we had plenty of time. I haven't been that wet before or since, not even while swimming.

This is the full story of that night. Even six years ago I didn't remember the song titles.

It's astonishing how many Vietnam War songs are cycling back to relevance once again, isn't it? You'd almost think that people hadn't learned anything at all.

LucyInDisguise said...

So, captive audience next to the pool.

Interesting. And, MacArthur Park? I mean, okay has rain in it and all, but, what the hell?

And curse you. Made me go and actually listen to that ----- EARWORM ALERT:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRwYQgk05DY

Lucy

LucyInDisguise said...

btw, Richard Harris really struggles to hit that "oh, noooooo".

That, at least, makes the torture worthwhile.

Lucy

David said...

Part of being in a band is learning how to banish earworms quickly, I found. Useful skill.

Right now this is what I've been listening to all weekend, especially the first song. I love Kate Davis. I wish she would actually record something (she's got two CDs that I could find after a web search, one I will obtain shortly and the other is remaindered and available for $35 on ebay. Sigh.

I never knew that was actually Richard Harris. I saw him in Camelot once, back in the 80s. Couldn't sing much then, either.