The rain.
It's astonishing how the rain can cut Swiss cheese style holes into your chest, squeeze your heart out like a gooey liquid, and dance the hokey pokey on top of it until you don't feel like getting out of bed anymore.
It's not that I don't like rainy days, in fact, every once in a while I enjoy taking advantage of a rainy day... I'll take the excuse to stay inside, curled into a blanket covered ball while watching tacky love movies without having to feel guilty about it. The smell of the rain can be absolutely cleansing... bringing a peace of mind and tranquility like none other. The sensation of the soft dew coupled with the smell of damp mud. The sound of rain tapping on the windows and rooftops. But these occasions are a typical springtime bliss that only exist in my Minnesotan memory. The sound of rain pattering on the windows here sounds like the brother of the apocalypse to me. Why?
There is this weather thing going on here in Asturias that is just mind twisting.
It rains for two weeks. Then is sunny for a day. Then, rains for two weeks. Then is sunny for two days. Then rains for two weeks. I think you get it. That is winter here. I'll admit there is nothing more forgiving than a sunny day in the middle of January, and Asturias gives you a few of those every once in a while. Only yesterday we peaked at a heavenly pleasant 65 degrees! Fabulous. In a matter of seconds the sunshine fills those Swiss-cheese holes right up. But then, right as your heart is coming back into place, the rain punches through those freshly sealed holes, squeezes your newly mended heart out again, and vengefully dances the hokey pokey on top of it, this time until it collapses from exhaustion. Sigh. And this is today. Let's start week three of rain, people.
Nearly the same here, but more snow and ice. I write "nearly", because precipitation has actually been very low for the last month or so. Just clouds. Low-hanging clouds. Every day. Then a morning of sunshine, and the clouds march back in. Not the sky that seems distant, the clouds that look like they are a hundred miles away in the MN – here, you duck your head in instinct.
ReplyDeleteNot frigid, not above zero, just cold. And ice. Yurrr..
Ongoing climate change has allowed you to arrive and meet very nice and mild asturian's winters: you don't mention that we have had temperatures well above 16-18ºC until new year's eve, mostly driven by a truly sunny end of autumn and winter start.
ReplyDeleteI precisely remember those old winters of my childhood: it started raining when you came back to school in September and it didn't stop until the end of May, always covered by a-thousand-tons-heavy dark grey sky.
In my opinion, Asturias has now one of the mildest, prettiest, healthiest (micro)climates to live in: a shallow look to the Cantabrian Corniche in GooglEarth may show much better than nothing to foreigners reading this blog what I try to say.
Liki, I see you didn't read my entry very carefully... "...there is nothing more forgiving than a sunny day in the middle of January, and Asturias gives you a few of those every once in a while. Only yesterday we peaked at a heavenly pleasant 65 degrees! Fabulous. "
ReplyDelete(And no, I didn't mention the entire climate of Asturias because I'm just talking about the hell that it is to live here when it's been raining for one month straight- like now. There is no one who can deny that it's absolutely horrible.)