The Persistence of Clouds

Lonnie and I moved to Seattle from Denver in the mid 90’s and have never thought of moving back. Even on days when the weather is like today: cold, cloudy, and damp. We dream instead of short escapes to Hawaii.

It’s tough on the psyche, I admit. We do have a lot of days with rain in Seattle. I have to qualify that statement—rain here is more like… a suggestion. We snort at TV portrayals of Seattle weather that show rain pelleting windows, flashes of lightning and grumbles of thunder. Since moving here, I can count the number of times I’ve seen and heard lightning and thunder on one hand. The rain does get things wet here, but not with any sort of assertiveness.

Seattle has an average number of 200 to 230 cloudy days per year. At this time of year the cloud cover is persistent. It’s keeping me awake at night with its persistence. So at 1:00am I am writing about it. I can’t imagine a worse time of year to be waiting for something as life changing as bringing home your first child.

When Lonnie and I started planning our family, I said, “I want to bring home a baby in Spring so we can have the warm summer weather to play outside and not feel stuck in the house while adjusting to being parents.” That was years ago when I was deluded in thinking I had any control over when a child entered our life. It is sheer luck that things have worked out for us as they have.

To say the least, I can’t wait for Spring.