Rainy Friday AM
We got a pass on the weather for a couple of days, but this morning I woke early and heard it: Patter patter. Yep, rain is back. By the parking garage at work this morning, I see no little green parrots (wonder where they're hiding?) - just dripping eucalyptus.
I head across the street to the hospital cafeteria to get breakfast for my secretary while she makes the coffee. In the building lobby, a burly Russian snarls "Stupid winter!" before heading out into the rain. This makes me grin - a
Russian complaining about a Southern California winter? But that's what living here does to you. You start to expect sunshine every single day. It's almost a God-given right. Come the rains of winter, we snarl and grumble. It reminds me of a
Deep Space Nine episode I saw years ago, sent on a "pleasure planet" where the weather was always perfect. When the computers that control the weather patterns are sabotaged, suddenly it rains constantly and everybody's gloomy and cranky. I'm sure the writers of that episode were satirizing Los Angeles.
I bring the food back (bacon and eggs - it's cold out there) and my secretary eyes my coffee mug.
"What's in there?"
"Rewarmed coffee from yesterday," I reply. (I will drink damn near any coffee, even a day or two old.) "Mmm-
mmm!"
She shakes her head, takes the cup and returns in a minute with fresh brewed. "That'll put hair on your chest." She stalks out.
I drink it and stare absently out the window at the rain and wind, esconced in my warm little box. I'm thankful to be inside.
UPDATE. One of the nurses: "Wow! Have you looked out your window?"
Me: "I know.
Wuthering Heights."
posted by Dr. Alice at #
