WET, DREARY DAYS NOT EVEN FOR THE BIRDS

If there is anything that I hate more than a dreary, wet and windy day in October, it is four consecutive dreary, wet and windy days in October..  It doesn't help that Rosanne and I are at different stages of struggling with bouts of pneumonia.

Make it a quick one, Lucy!

At the best of times, fall is the most depressing of the four seasons for me, but this is ridiculous.  Enough already!  I've had it up to my over-stuffed sinuses!

In the old days you might say that we have "walking pneumonia".  We're able to be up and about (most of the time), but most of the time why bother.  Sleep is a better option, providing you can stop coughing long enough.

Yesterday (Sunday), with plans to attempt to go to church, I got up at the usual time, showered, shaved and -- subsequently tossed in the towel.  One look out the window convinced me that I was making right decision.  It was just not a fit day outside for man nor beast.  Even Lucy needed gentle persuasion to venture off our back porch step in order to perform her routine morning duty.

The rest of the day I rotated prone positions on my recliner chair and the couch.  Rosanne continued to be a permanent fixture on her recliner, moaning, hacking and coughing her way around the clock.  At about 4:30 in the afternoon I reached the point where I'd had enough.  "I need some fresh air in spite of the weather,"I reasoned.  "I need to see people.  Maybe some Tim Horton's coffee will help liven us up."

You could shoot a cannon down the main street of Southampton...Not a soul to be seen, which was not a surprise to me, given the kind of day that it was.  The parking lot at Tim Horton's was vacant and there were no customers inside.  "Just one of those off days," commented the young pony-tailed clerk with a yawn.  "Except for breakfast, it's been quiet like this all day.  People are staying home where it's dry, I guess."

Just one of those days, to be sure.  But God help me, not four in a row.  I'd check the weather report for the next couple of days, but in truth I simply do not have the energy right now.  I'd rather just make it through today and rely on the philosophy that "tomorrow will be another day" -- and take my chances.

Henry Wadsorth Longfellow kind of hit the nail on the head with the following poem written in the mid 1800s:

The day is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the moldering wall,
But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary.

My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
My thoughts still cling to the moldering Past,
But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast
And the days are dark and dreary.

Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.

Thanks Henry.  I think we all needed that!