July 15, 2020

 

What day is this?  Tuesday, Wednesday, oh yeah, it’s Wednesday.  I have only been gone for 4 days, but it seems a hell of a lot longer than that.  Honestly, I thought this was going to be a piece of cake sitting in my room for a week, eating three meals a day, catching up on all the television shows and movies that I always wanted to watch, but never took the time to do so.  It is HARD.  After I do my morning medical report, what do I have to look forward to?  Oh yeah, my COVID test in the late afternoon.

It’s a good thing Deidre and I own a pub.  At least I can spend an hour taking care of pub stuff.  Then, okay, I’m done with “The Politician,” I guess I will start “Queen of the South.”  One episode becomes, two, becomes three, and then next thing I know I have watched seven straight episodes.  It sucks you right in, and, it’s not like have anything else to do.

I text my wife every so often, asking her nothing in particular.  Actually, I ask her nothing.  I am sure she is on the other end at home in Tucson thinking, “He must be really bored, he never texts me this much.”  And then when I call her I don’t really have anything to say.  What’s new in my life?  Uhh, got food today…yum yum. Watched TV, got tested, went to bed.  Neither of us like this separation, and it has only been four days.  We are 1/20 through our temporary separation.  There’s a long way to go.  I miss her, the dogs, the coffee in the morning, even the non-stop coverage of the COVID crisis on every station you turn to.  And I am missing monsoon season in Tucson. 

But hey, it has been raining every day here in Orlando.  And the rain here comes in sheets.  None of that tiny droplet crap, it’s a wall of water when the clouds open up.  Everything turns gray, the lightning strikes and the thunder rolls.  In the middle of the lagoon is a restaurant, I think.  I can’t tell because I can’t go out there.  It’s called the Villa del Lago.  It is a restaurant.  I just Googled it.  Anyway, on top is a lightning warning flasher. I can see the reflection of the flasher as it bounces off a wall in my room.  When I see that rhythmic light, I know a downpour is just a few minutes away.  I only wish I could sit outside and breathe it in.  I love the rain.  We don’t get much in Arizona, so rain is always the top news story when it occurs.

This affection for weather has been with me since I can remember.  I recall in elementary school in Southern California, we would get storms that lasted three days in a row.  I would stare out the window, hoping it wouldn’t stop, even though I knew we wouldn’t be able to go outside during recess and play football, or basketball, or baseball, depending on the time of the year.  But then when it would stop, especially in the winter, I had my eyes glued where Mt. Baldy was, and anxiously waited for the clouds to rise so I could see how low the snow level was.

In college, in San Francisco, it rained a lot.  But I loved it!  I would sleep with my windows open so I could hear it and smell it. To this day, when I travel to San Francisco every May to run the Bay to Breakers (I’ve ran that race every year since 1979, missing only a few) I stay at my cousin Marilyn’s house, and she has a room with the head of the bed that aligns with a window that I prop wide open.  I pray for rain, and I usually get it.

I would say my funniest appreciation for weather was when I lived in England.  I was fortunate enough to play professional basketball in Europe after graduating college.  England, not the driest climate in the world, but I didn’t mind at all.  I enjoy the rain.  But what I didn’t know was that it snowed where I lived in Farnborough.  Snow!  Can you believe it!  I had never lived where it snowed.  Well, one December morning, I woke up colder than normal, and I looked outside to see beautiful, softly floating flakes of snow descending from the sky.  The streets were white, I couldn’t see the grass on the front lawn any longer.  I was stoked.  I went and banged on my room mates door, throwing it open.  “Larry, Larry, get up!  You gotta see this!  It fucking snowed last night!  It’s snowing now!  Get up, get up.”  He looked at me dreary eyed, threw his pillow at me in anger, and said “Dude, I’m from Utah.  I’ve seen fucking snow…”