It was blurry, but nice

It was a no-good, dreary, rainy day.  It was like that yesterday too, but sans rain.  At least yesterday I could go outside, even if I couldn't go out and soak up some sun.  Yesterday I went out and walked for a couple of miles, and there were even some pretty leaves.

See?  Pretty.

Today it rained.  Pretty much the whole day.  I went to see my dentist, which might have been awful if he were somebody else, but my dentist is not awful.  We always have good conversations.  And his daughter, whom I like, works for him, and I love to listen to their back-and-forth.  So that part was nice.  Not so nice when he was doing hurty things to my gums with small metal instruments, but nice other than that.

Around two today, on the second day of the sun not having come up and what the hell?  The sun is supposed to come up EVERY DAY.  It's in the rules.  The physical, astronomical rules.  But no.  No sun.  Stupid sun.

Anyway, around two today, I got an email asking me to go to another building.  Something that should have been working was not working, and somebody needed to go push a button.  You would think that at NASA we would have button-pushing robots, or telepathically stimulated on switches, or something.  Instead, we have a middle aged system administrator who walks over and pushes the button.  Cheaper.  More reliable.  No firmware updates.

I was happy to get the email.  I had been trying to convince myself to go for a walk out in the rain, and the parts of me that dislike being wet had been winning.  I took off my glasses first.  I am not really very near sighted, and I don't need the glasses for either walking or button-pushing.  And I hate the raindrops on them.  So glasses off.  Then I put on my rain skirt (see yesterday's blog) and my raincoat, and I stuck my phone in my pocket, and off I went.

I don't really mind walking in the rain.  What I mind is my face getting wet.  This is only a problem in light rain, when those tiny raindrops are more like mist blowing.  Very wet mist.  Today was a very wet misty rainy day.

I walked over and hit the button, and stayed to verify that the thing had really turned on.  Then I walked back to my building and emailed the fellow to let him know that his machine was working again.  Then after all that, he emailed me to say that he hoped the weather wasn't bad.  He had heard it wasn't nice out.

Huh.  I was mostly thinking about what a lazy git I was for not going out on my regular walk.  I just needed a nudge.  I had forgotten that in fact most people would not have walked the mile over to the other building.  Most people would have driven.  Or made an excuse.  "Can't do it right now, in the middle of something important.  Will get to it first thing in the morning.  (When the sun is out.)"  It would not have made a nice, if damp, change for them. 

I think this is one of those things that sets hikers aside from other people.  It's not that we necessarily enjoy going out in the rain.  Although some do.  Or being uncomfortable.  (Although some do.) It's that we've forgotten that going out in the rain isn't a regular thing.  It's just one more way to have a walk.  A sunny day, a windy day, a day with mosquitoes, a day with deer, a day with rain.  They're all different types of walking days.  

Love walking days.