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Bouncing Back

Bouncing Back

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It was dark 15 minutes ago, at 7:30 a.m. Now, at 7:57, a wan winter light is finally seeping through the window blinds. But this is fine. I’ll take it. Because from here on, we’re getting lighter.

Reaching the Winter Solstice is like touching the bottom of the pool in 10-feet water. Slight scary and other-worldly—but also buoyant. Touch the bottom firmly enough and you will bounce back, all the way to the surface, where life is how it’s supposed to be.

For me, it’s supposed to be summer. This doesn’t mean I want to live in a place of eternal sunshine. But it does mean that normalcy is shorts, t-shirts and long evenings. Strangely enough, we may just have some of this today, as the temperature hits a freakish 65.

It may almost feel like Summer Solstice. But the early darkness will give it away.

Deluge!

Deluge!

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This weekend the Washington, D.C., region broke a 130-year-old record: It became the rainiest year ever here, with 63.62 inches compared with 61.33 inches from 1889. (The record-keeping started in 1871.) And who’s to say we couldn’t pick up an inch or two more before it’s all over. We have two weeks left, after all.

There were flooded roads throughout the region, including one of the two that leads to my neighborhood, with yellow caution tape strung across the intersection at the top of the hill.

As if that wasn’t enough, we also experienced the greatest three-day winter rainstorm ever: 3.44 inches from late Friday through late Sunday. It wasn’t a weekend to go caroling or drive around and look at the holiday light displays.

In fact, it was mostly a weekend to stay inside, sleep, decorate, cook and write Christmas cards. Or at least that’s how I chose to spend it.

Now that the workweek has begun, we have a clear day with a splendid sunrise. It’s been that kind of year.

Windy, with a Chance of Jet Noise

Windy, with a Chance of Jet Noise

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It is not just a little bit windy today. It is gusty enough to send incoming Dulles aircraft into the dreaded alternate runway pattern.

This means that as I sit here snug and cozy in my house, proofing, editing and listening to a webcast I need to write up, I also have one ear cocked for the sound of sudden jet deceleration.

It’s unnerving! But also, not unexpected. This happens on super windy days.

All I need to do is keep on working, hang onto my hat — and try not to listen.

Early Snow

Early Snow

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There are still leaves on the trees, but that isn’t stopping the snow from falling. What was first billed as sleet and freezing rain has turned into snow that’s sticking on deck and railing, yard and street.

Roads, mostly untreated, are slick and getting slicker.

It will turn to rain later, they say. They being the Capital Weather Gang, my go-to weather source.  But they also said there wouldn’t be much accumulation, so I’m not believing them at the moment.

What I am believing is what I see from the warm confines of my living room. The snow is falling, and there may be a little sleet mixed in because it’s making a sound when it hits the ground. No silent snow, secret snow here. It’s early snow, loud snow.

Mellow Sunshine

Mellow Sunshine

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Over the weekend, as D.C. reeled from yet another emotional and divisive week, the weather gave us a gift: days of mellow sunshine and low humidity, scant clouds. Not Indian Summer, not yet, because we haven’t had a frost. More like the early September days we hoped for but didn’t receive.

There’s a thinness in the air this time of year that allows us to enjoy the warmth, not dread it.  I remember feeling this thinness while doing homework in early September during grammar school. Sitting on the front stoop, wearing my green-and-gray-plaid uniform and a too-tight pair of saddle shoes or penny loafers, still in love with my cartridge pen with peacock blue ink.

Somehow, those memories are all mixed up with the feel of the September air, not quite fall but not quite summer, either. A glorious in-between time.

That’s what we had this weekend, even though we’ve just entered October, what we’re promised through the week. If you listen closely you’ll hear a collective sigh of gratitude.

Fall Wish List

Fall Wish List

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On this first day of fall, I wish for …

Blue skies,

Brilliant fall foliage,

And a crispness to the air,

Which is more difficult to picture, but which means …

It needs to stop raining for a while!

Cloudy

Cloudy

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Cloudy, the sky is gray and white and cloudy
sometimes I think it’s hanging down on me.

So begins a Simon and Garfunkel tune that was one of my favorites back in the day. It was an upbeat accompaniment to teenage angst:

Cloudy, my thoughts are scattered and they’re cloudy.
They have no borders, no boundaries.
They echo and they swell
From Tolstoy to Tinkerbell,
Down from Berkeley to Carmel,
Got some pictures in my pocket and a lot of time to kill…

It wasn’t until I left home for college and work that I realized I’d grown up in one of the cloudier areas of the country — the Ohio River Valley. Then I moved to northern Virginia and realized how sunny one’s days could be.

That was, until this summer …

But … we just broke a 10-day cloudy streak that began to ease up the late Tuesday afternoon and came to full fruition yesterday.

How sweet it was to sit on the deck, to walk without the umbrella, to feel the warmth of the sun on my face. It was like a tonic.

Hey, sunshine, I haven’t seen you in a long time
Why don’t you show your face and bend my mind.

My mind has been properly bent.

Post Florence

Post Florence

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The hurricane we’d been hearing about for a week finally made its way to northern Virginia today. And from what I’ve seen of its tatters I’m thankful we were spared its brunt.

The rain fell with tropical fullness and vigor, thin, plentiful sheets of it. Rain that blew in from the south, gathered from a warm ocean and spewed back onto land. Rain that made puddles on the sidewalk and street, twin fins of water spraying up from the cars.

Has it rained every day for the last three months?  No, of course not.  It only seems like it has. Last weekend was actually drier than predicted. And our totals from Florence will be measured in inches not feet.

But a few days from now, when the Equinox happens , we’ll say goodbye to a summer that’s been the rainiest in memory. We met our yearly totals a month ago!

As I write these words the dehumidifier hums beside me. It’s on overdrive these days.

(Rain from Florence streams down a bus window.) 

Category 6?

Category 6?

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Hurricane Florence is so large and so strong and intensified so quickly that experts are wondering if ultimately there might need to be a Category 6 for hurricanes.

Apparently, other hurricanes have also been strengthening rapidly, and this has stimulated research that shows how fast they’ll blow up 50 or more years from now.

Not to take away an ounce of concern for the people of South Carolina and North Carolina and all the states (including Virginia) that will be affected by this monster storm. Weather patterns are changing.

But … it seems is that every storm is now the “Storm of the Century.” Which means that hurricane coverage has already jumped to a Category 6!

(Photo: NASA)

ISO Blue Skies

ISO Blue Skies

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You know you’ve had a soggy summer when some of your best weather days have happened in Ireland! After a downpour Friday night, mist and spray Saturday and rain all day yesterday, I’m remembering the blue skies of the Emerald Isle.

As I walked into the office building this morning, I noticed the squeaking of my tennis shoes on the polished floor. That and “squish-squish” have become the soundtrack of our rainy days. The umbrella that I keep in my bag for emergency showers has been pressed into service more times than I can count.

And with a hurricane barreling toward the East Coast this may just the beginning of our wet weather woes.

For now, I’m going to think dry thoughts  — not sure exactly what those are … but I’ll come up with some.

(St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin. Not a cloud in the sky.)