Sunday. Early. Rain falls. I don the pea coat and walk to the beach, past the holiday decorations and hummingbirds feeding from the feeders the hummingbird nuts keep filled year round. I love these hummingbird nuts. As I walk down the road, I think about another Christmas tale I want to write, even though the […]
Hard May rain pummels my domicile. I am cooking up a mushroom and rice soup. Rain and soup always go together. Quail make their monkey noises in the hedges. I am reading Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man for the first time in 35 years. Naturally it is holding up and searing and relevant. Didn’t a black […]
Rain falls outside an Oregon tavern. A large flock of geese just flew by in full glory and I realize it’s the first time I’ve ever seen geese fly from inside a dive bar. I liked it a lot. I am drinking the local porter. Regulars are playing pool and philosophizing about pool. Thirty minutes […]
I received an email the other day from a reader of the rain book. He had just ordered the second-to-last copy of Of Walking in Rain that I have in my possession. A few are still out there in bookstores and rare book sites. The rain book keeps on raining goodness to me. I never […]
Rain drills into my domicile, the sound of screws puncturing sheet metal. I feel listless, red wine and soup weather. Reading a novel weather. I’ve got so many great rain stories, but ideas for new ones seem dried out. Advance, always, into rain. I need new strategies for advancement. The old ones have died. I […]
Rain falls on a Sunday afternoon and I sip coffee spiked with whiskey. It is that kind of afternoon. I’m reading a dud from Hammett, a rare occurrence. I may switch over to Grapes of Wrath. I decided to read it again. Thirty five years between readings is a long time for a classic and […]
A woman of the sun comes to visit a man of rain. There is possible romance in their weather. He looks forward to walks with her, forecasting what their future might hold in the land of rain. She’ll throw out her forecasts as well. Two forecasts will perhaps merge and reveal the true weather in […]
A woman from the land of sun bought a copy of the rain book. I wonder if it will work in her mind and heart while reading it where there is no rain. Perhaps it doesn’t matter. Maybe that book was really one big fat metaphor. I just returned from a long walk in rain […]
Rain slides the highway into the sea. Rain buckles the road. Rain brings rocks and mud down from the hills. Rain sends creeks across the shoulders. I am driving through it, sloshing, sliding, surfing, on my way into the mountains and snow flurries. Horses, goats, sheep and cattle stand angled into rain or take shelter […]
Going on 48 straight hours. When the rain gets weird, the weird turn pro. Now is the time to turn pro. Eight to 12 inches forecast for this stretch. It will flood here and there, maybe everywhere. I always notice how hard rain on the Oregon Coast erodes the infrastructure: roads, bridges, dykes, culvert, fields, […]