Gray Day

What a persistent stretch of rainy gray days. It seems to me that February or March of this year marked a transition from *typical* North Country winter to rain-dominant weather. Then a rainy spring followed by a rainy summer. When autumn arrived, everyone was in agreement that the rain was behind us. Certainly September and October would dry up. But we were all wrong. Great day after great day. Rain, rain, rain.

It’s tempting to explain whether anomalies like we’ve been experiencing along the Adirondack Coast for the last 9-10 through the lens of climate change. I do suspect the two are most likely related, but the inclination to pass judgment dismissively — or grumbling and bemoaning increasingly immoderate weather trends — is boring at best. And it blinds us to the spectacular drama that remains part and parcel of extreme weather. Even days like today (and yesterday and the day before and…) weave spectacular shows of beauty amidst the drab and dreary. Interstitial gems like yesterday’s “Sunup Sunday” manifest just as we’re abandoning home.

Gray Day Daze

Gray day daze
after sleepless night
waiting for rain
to become sleet 
to become snow
but barely.
A sunless dawn
blurs bleary eyes,
slush and mud,
misunderstanding,
gravity’s pull
on guts and brain,
aching for rest,…
But stew instead
and lentil soup
and cornbread
to share with friends
and trudging mud
and drip-drizzle-drip
again and again
to consult and laugh
with operators 
of excavator
and dump truck
as our driveway
is reimagined
less potholed and
less sloughy and
more functional and
more aligned and
finally
finished. 

Afterward

As luck would have it this Monday had one last surprise in store for us. As afternoon drifted toward evening, just shy of sunset o’clock, several clefts in the dense cloud cover parted, and buttery sunlight streamed down on saturated lawn and trees. A glorious curtain call foreshadowing better weather tomorrow…