"It was cold, bleak, biting weather: foggy withal: and he could hear the people in the court outside go wheezing up and down, beating their hands upon their breasts, and stamping their feet upon the pavement stones to warm them. The city clocks had only just gone three, but it was quite dark already -- it had not been light all day: and candles were flaring in the windows of the neighbouring offices, like ruddy smears upon the palpable brown air... [m]eanwhile the fog and darkness thickened so, that people ran about with flaring links, proffering their services to go before horses in carriages, and conduct them on their way."

I thought of these lines from A Christmas Carol as I was driving home tonight.

We had a day of complete rain, light this morning, heavy this afternoon, a taste of what the poor folks in Washington state and Oregon have been going through for the past couple of weeks. It wasn't very cold—it stood about mid-50s all afternoon—but made up for it by being damp, drear and miserable. By three o'clock, as in imitation of Dickens' prose, it was as dark as twilight and I drove home in a steady gloom that darkened after an hour. The streets were quite awash and even at slower speed I frequently raised great gouts of "propwash" to either side of me. Mabry Street and Windsor Parkway, with their beautiful homes and lovely trees, respectively, were even dismal, although a few bright trees, flame tipped or ruddy, managed to still command attention. (So many homes didn't have lights lit; they looked so lonely! I'm glad I have Mama's lamp lit in the foyer to greet us in the evening!) The others so engaged in traffic navigation in this mess clotted intersections, including the one at Mount Paran and Cobb Parkway, which is usually okay. On Cobb Parkway, Borders' big sign lit up its area like a warm literary mecca, but I continued home.

I put XM's "Holly" station on and slogged through the 90 minutes on an even keel of mistletoe, snow, and red berries. A great lift on a sodden day.

Labels: weather

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 7:10:00 PM

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