Bucket down

I am most definitely not a rain girl. At one time, I used to think I was a rain girl, but this was when I grew up and lived in one of the driest climates in Canada, and so rain was both a rare occurrence and a special treat.

When I was preparing to move to the UK many years ago, everyone warned me that "it rains a lot in England!" Yeah, yeah, I thought. But rain is lovely and comforting and makes you feel warm and toasty when you're at home under a blanket with a big bowl of popcorn watching a movie, and then when you realize you forgot the candy all you do is get in your car that's waiting in your dry garage and drive five minutes to the store, where you park right next to the door and hop from your car to under the store-front awning, dash in and dash out, and before you know it you're back home, snug as a bug, and the next day, it's gloriously sunny and you can go outside and wonder when it might rain again.

But as I learned all too quickly, living in England is nothing like this. Instead it is more like, Oh my goodness, I cannot believe it is raining again because it has been raining every.single.day. for three weeks and I have not seen the sun for more than 45 cumulative minutes in all that time and my skin is turning pasty and gross and every time I go out (on foot!) I get soaked to the bone and then once I get to work I announce to everyone that my "pants" are wet right through, and they all snort and laugh because they're British, and in their vernacular, "pants" means something very different altogether, and now I am both wet and looking like a fool, but I cannot put my shoes or socks over the vent to warm up because this is Britain and they don't have vents, so I will remain miserable and cold and wet and wonder when I will possibly see the sun again, and then lo and behold, on the first full day of sunshine, every British person (or at least it feels that way) runs outdoors and strips off their shirt and lies, half-naked, in the chilly spring weather.

It's been raining a lot in New York lately. It was tolerable for a while, and I appreciate that all this rain is good for the trees and the grass and the flowers, and is indeed the very reason that Central Park is such a lush playground to begin with. But after many days of this, and many days more in the forecast, it's starting to wear a little thin. I believe that Friday is the sole day of sunshine in the forecast between now and when we leave for vacation, and you can bet that Zdenek and I will both be riding tomorrow.

Zdenek and I are incredibly anxious for our vacation to begin. It's been a tough slog in NYC this year and we're both knackered (my inner Brit reveals herself). The forecast isn't meant to be much better where we're headed, but even if it's chilly, I hope that it is dry. Maybe by the time we get back, the clouds over this little island will have cleared away.