Hand Me Downs

It is gray and rainy today, and I love it.  I especially love it when it’s after a few hot sunny days- what an entirely kind mix of sun and rain for the garden.  

Does weather attach itself to memories for you?  Today’s particularly quality of raininess is attaching itself to a late afternoon rain I remember from high school.  The sky was dark, dark, after school.  No show choir rehearsal- and in the spring there were lots of show choir rehearsals.  (We’ll save pictures of Katy in sequins for another day…)   I lived in Chantilly, Virginia, and both parents had careers at that point.   I had a car, my little blue camry, that apparently is still running somewhere in Oil City, PA- my dad sold it to the shop teacher from the Vo-Tech school.  

I knew I would be going home to a quiet house on a stormy afternoon, so I made my plan quickly.  I zipped over to the local bakery.  By the time I arrived, the rain had started, a steady fall.   I bought a jar of apricot-apple melange and a loaf of bread and shielded them from the now-pouring rain as I got back in the car.  At this point, the rain began to dump, and dumped the whole way home while I drove ten miles an hour.  There was nothing to be done but run for it.  I got into the house, drenched to the bone, freezing in the air conditioning.    I ran a hot bath, then snuggled into jammies and read Winnie the Pooh in my daybed by the window, munching bread with jam and drinking hot chocolate as the thunder boomed and the rain dumped, all afternoon.  Perfect rain day.  

I’m sitting in Crema, looking out the picture window at the city blanketed in gray, listening to Mazzy Star.  Talking to you, drinking one of Rachel’s perfect mochas, the kind you don’t mess up with whipped cream.   Tucking this rainy day in my pocket.  Hope today is a favorite rainy day for you.  

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWvEXChflEE]