Doldrums

Doldrums

The sun is being such a little wimp these days, barely having the guts to show his face. Instead, it just hides on the other side of a curtain of clouds all day like a little sissy kid standing behind his big brother. And speaking of little sissies, the lack of quality light turns my psyche into the nerdy sun's severely anemic best friend. I'm not exactly afraid to go outside, but the weather is certainly more hostile out there than it was just a few short weeks ago. It seems like summer was just yesterday. First I had to wear long pants, then shoes with socks. I wore a coat this morning. What's next? Shoveling the walk? Ice fishing?

While living in light-deprived Seattle I would go to the gym to revamp my batteries. I don't have a gym here, and I know that the sun will be back soon enough, so in the meantime I just languish in these gloomy doldrums. It may even be dry enough for a bike ride today. Talking myself into it is the hard part. I just stuck my hand out the window and it's starting to sprinkle so the bike ride is off for today. I don't know if I'm disappointed or relieved. Can I be both?

The end of summer was really abrupt this year. I remember riding my bike to the beach with no shirt just a couple of weeks ago. The next thing you know my clothes are practically getting moldy on the clothesline after sitting for days in the darkness and chilly humidity. Aren't you required to go through some sort of decompression phase when seasons change from one to the other? Can I get the bends from this year's lack of gradual transition? If one of the symptoms of the bends is laziness, then I already have a severe case.

I still garner a bit of irrational hope that the hot weather will return, like some kid who thinks that his divorced parents will get back together. At this point, I think I have to accept the fact that summer is out of my life, for this year at least. Winter will soon be moving in, like a very unwelcomed stepparent. “You're not my real season. I hate you!” I scream as I slam the door to my room. People say that winter isn't too bad and that I should at least give it a chance. I don't have to do anything and you can't make me.

I hate to whine and live in the past, but summer here in Valencia is such a fantastic season. I have quickly become very warm-blooded, heliotropic, and not really a fan of the rain and darkness. The cold makes my blood thicker than the stuff running through the veins of my turtle. He seems to be weathering the cold a lot better than I have these past couple of weeks. I thought that he'd be slowing down to a crawl but he is swimming his little turtle butt off, cold water and all. November is a lot better—a lot less rain if not much warmer. By the time winter actually rolls around I will have completely acclimatized. Until then I will try to buck up and get through this.