Sunday Song: Storm

It’s been a stormy week. Some of the storms are metaphorical, but they had real-life effects. Some of the storms were real, and had real-life effects. I should be in Oregon right now, recovering from a day banging on rocks at Quartzville. But Lockwood and I called that off because the weather kept looking stormier and stormier. Also, Aunty Flow’s doing those “Guess who’s coming to make you miserable!” nudges. When that happens, it’s best not to nudge back by engaging in strenuous physical exercise.

All of this has left me with one song going through my head:

Thing is, I couldn’t see the storm – the real one, I mean (the metaphorical one was bloody fucking obvious and has been for some time). I realized a day or so ago that we did, indeed, have a storm coming in. Silly thing to say, right? I mean, the weather was nice for two days, but the forecast predicted rain for the weekend, what else would it be but a storm? It’s just that rain is Seattle’s default weather. I’ve stopped thinking in terms of rainstorms. A storm system moves in that brings rain, but I don’t see it as a storm, just rain, just ordinary weather. A storm, to my Arizona mind, implies an upheaval, something different, something a bit wild and chaotic. Days upon days of gentle drizzle interrupted by occasional sunbreaks don’t register as stormy. But they are.

And the rain came down hard Saturday. It got serious about the business. It reminded me of the Noah Open, which is what my dad and his golfing buddies named the tournament they played in during an epic monsoon storm in Flagstaff. I could barely see to drive to the mall, but they stayed the course. They’re more hardcore than I am, those golfers. I didn’t step a foot outside of shelter today, and yet this rain was the lightest of spring drizzles compared to the downpour (with lightning!) they played through. But for Seattle, this was a serious storm.

So I did a desultory bit of cleaning, yammered at my intrepid companion over the phone, and then settled down to read up a bit on threat assessment. You’ll see the results of that soon. I decided that, seeing as how it was a dark and stormy day, I’d sink into the bathtub with a book. That’s about the time the clouds went away and the sun came out.

I had a bath anyway. Then I went up on the drumlin and enjoyed the brief sunshine. I was after birds, but the buggers didn’t cooperate. I saw a hummingbird, too small and distant to try to capture with a point-and-shoot camera. One day, I’m going to see about setting up a hummingbird feeder so I can catch the little bastards in action. I’ll just have to ensure I do it right – I remember hearing somewhere that some feeders are harmful, and I don’t want to hurt any hummingbirds. I just want to shoot them with a camera.

I’m rambling, aren’t I? Never mind me. Where were we? Ah, yes, storms. I don’t mind storms, actually. Much. Sure, they sometimes keep me from doing what I’d like, but they’re quite often necessary. The metaphorical one certainly has been. It needn’t ever to have happened. You’d think people who call themselves skeptics would be rational enough to handle the idea of harassment policies without completely losing their shit. But they have, and so there’s a storm howling round us, and when it clears, I do believe we’ll find a shiny, fresh set of harassment policies designed to make everyone’s* experience better gleaming in the sun, because most people in this movement are rational enough to realize such things are necessary. Obviously, also, desperately needed, considering the behavior of those who hate them so much.

Things thankfully haven’t gotten stormy round the cantina, because every single person who’s commented has been brilliant. You’re good people, and I appreciate you more than I can ever express.

You’re my raincoat and umbrella. You’re allowing me to venture out into the storm without worrying about getting too soggy. Thank you.

It’s only going to get stormier before the sun’s out, I’m afraid. But that’s all right. We’ll weather it just fine, all of us together.

Okay, so the lyrics don’t quite match my optimism. Just stick with the title and we’ll get there.

Here’s a good place.

The Finnish, according to Dark Lyrics, translates thusly:

The shadow of goodness covers the tear,
Takes the step to the one found.
Peace may rock the cradle to sleep.
Hope remains, a way to love.
A way to a deep freedom.

All we have to do is weather the storms. And we will, my darlings. We will**.

 

*Excepting those who must harass to have a good time, but who gives a shit if they’re not satisfied?

**Even if Dark Lyrics is completely wrong about the Finnish. I’m really not sure. Bing (formerly Babelfish, which was far cooler) made a dog’s breakfast of the translation. But if you want a good laugh, go paste this:

Hyvyyden varjo peittää kyyneleen,
löytäneen luo vie askeleen.
Rauha saa, kehto uneen tuudittaa.
Toivo jää, tie rakkauteen.
Tie syvään vaupauteen.

Into here. Yep.

I don’t think Google Translate has anything to fear from Bing just yet.

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Sunday Song: Storm
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5 thoughts on “Sunday Song: Storm

  1. 1

    the downpour (with lightning!) they played through.

    They were idiots to play golf in a lightning storm. There’s a reason why the PGA calls any competition day when there’s lightning within ten miles of the course and it’s not because people might get wet.

    Some years ago I was in a sailboat that got struck by lightning. The boat was demasted and two people were seriously injured. Fortunately the fuses protected the radio, we had spare fuses and we were able to rig an antenna to call the Coast Guard to transport the injured to medical care or else they could have died. Nowadays if there’s any chance of thunderstorms near the Sound, I don’t go sailing.

  2. 2

    Of course, today has been utterly perfect. Some scattered clouds earlier in the afternoon, but completely clear since about 3 PM, and very pleasant temperature. On the other hand, I was up past 4 AM watching the concluding episodes of The Sarah Connor Chronicles, then Bif spent a couple hours romping up and down my side, until I closed him out of the bedroom. Whereupon he spent the next hour and a half scratching at the door and howling. It was 9 before I fell asleep. So today probably wouldn’t have been very good, either.

  3. 3

    That was some helluva rain (or storm) Saturday, wasn’t it.

    There was flooding in the north of England, too. Maureen Brian bumped into the BBC reporter Nick Ravenscroft yesterday right after he’d done his story on the floods.

  4. 5

    How fortuitous that you brought up “Storm” at this point. It finally convinced me to write up this idea that I’ve been meaning to write you about. (I’m an infrequent commenter here, but a dedicated reader and fan.)

    You’ve written in the past about wanting to write fiction (I realize that’s mostly about sci-fi.), and I thought that your love of geology might also lead to a type of novel that has seldom been written. I only know of one practitioner, and he was quite successful but is now long dead.

    I’m talking about George R. Stewart, who wrote two novels (among much non-fiction) that were essentially “biographies” of natural phenomena with human characters in secondary roles: Storm (1941) is the story of a storm that crosses the Pacific and becomes a major winter storm across California and the Sierra Nevada. It is still in many public libraries and is still available from Amazon (but not for Kindle yet) – http://www.amazon.com/California-Legacy-George-Rippey-Stewart/dp/1890771740 The second is Fire (1948), the “biography” of a forest fire in the Sierra Nevada.

    I think you’ve got the talent and imagination to choose a nice bit of geology and create a novel about it (maybe with your alien observers to help cover long time scales).

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