Rain

Feels like home... As in, it's raining and 9 degrees C. In August. And it's not that prairie rain that swooshes in, drenches the earth in a matter of minutes then hurries away. It's the damp, gloomy, misty kind of rain that lingers and soaks you through slowly but thoroughly. And I've got to take a bus in it. The Casses, who have been very generous in lending me their car, needed it back yesterday and I find myself without wheels and dependent on Calgary Transit once more. It's actually not so bad. I need the exercise and I can appreciate the city more by observing the world from my bus seat.

Two weeks ago we were baking in the scorching heat of the upper 20s / lower 30s (hot for Calgary) and were scorning the tv ads for bringing their "back to school" themes when summer was clearly not over yet. Now it seems the weather is doing these retailers a favour with autumnal temperatures and a general gloom that comes with the anticlimax of the departing high season. And no wonder there's a gloom. Summer lasts maybe 2 months? Then there is about 2-3 weeks of Fall then it snows and thus begins the greater season of winter that remains for up to 8 months. Spring this year, I am told, was somewhat hit and miss. We had a few days of glorious sunshine in April and May where the weather seemed to perk up and bring warmth to the snow-filled land. Then it would snow again, and not just flurries but huge amounts. When I arrived in June the temperature was as it is now: 9 degrees. It had hailed (but seemed as though it wanted to snow) and there was a lot of rain. The wind had a bite to it and the mountains were still quite white. And so I could still marvel at Winter's final days (although not the deep winter, but the final gasps of a season ending). But the Sun knew better and told of things to come when it emerged from behind the clouds and revealed the true power of its heat, as it should in June, making it too hot for jackets in the sun, but too cold without them in shade. Such an interesting part of the world.

So now I sit at this computer and write of other days while the rain soaks this city and the clouds obscure the sun. But it is mid-August and the sun has not lost the battle yet. Plenty of sunny days to come, and beyond that plenty of Indian Summers in late September, early October. I wonder if I shall still be here to witness and write of those...