Returning Rain

I ran again yesterday. Ran last Tuesday, mt. biked Friday, indoor soccer on Sunday. I like the rhythm I've begun here. My body feels tired and sore but good all the same. Yesterdays run coincided with a return to rain here in the great green north and i felt my heart sink at the feeling of those first few drops of rain. It wasn't long before my truck, our car, the world around us was sprinkled damp by the cold winter rain and the grey clouds crept in with so little warning. I should have been expecting the cold damp weather to return, it is still February and winter still has claim to the world around me but the past week and a half have been phenomenal, sunny and warm, early spring days that materialized right here in the heart of winter.

My first year in Bellingham there was a foot of snow the last week of march, finals week at WWU. I won't complain, one of my finals that week was cancelled in favor of midterm grades, gotta love easy goin' lit. profs. The weather here is never what i expect. Long time Bellinghamsters will say it never snows in town, it rains all the time, and the summers are beautiful. Well, the summers are beautiful but it doesn't rain as much as the locals would have you believe. Yes, the winter months are dark and depressing and push me to the verge of darkness and fear--to the point where sunlight has to come before madness sets in. But the majority of the year it is green and bright. It just comes in two distinct blocks. Dark, rainy, and cold. Light, sunny, and warm. The snow issue is an interesting one, we didn't have much this year, but starting with the snow i alluded to a moment ago, every winter that i have been here has seen enough snow to shut down the town for a week. The failure of the local populace to recognize yearly snow fall as routine and regular year after year blows me away! Its like people live in the shadow of urban legends they've invented to make Bellingham unique and are afraid to recognize the greater effects of weather patterns on their lives. It would be funny if it wasn't so routinely pathetic.

As i write, i should note again that we haven't had significant snow this year, in town. The local ski are (Mt. Baker, check it out at www.mtbaker.us) has a pretty significant base--120 in.--and if conditions remain consistent they could be open well into April. A few thousand feet drastic elevation change is the dramatic difference between snow and rain.

So, today starts. It is cloudy and dark and it has been raining all night. I can hear the small metallic taps against the gutters and down the down spouts. I have no where to be, no where in particular to go. When the sun in shining, no matter the consequence or nature of life, things seem to be on track to work our okay. When the rain is falling and the sky is dark, well, the sunny outlook is hard to find.