Indoor Days

Just one of those things; that time of year when the rain is heavy and constant, the air chill, the trees have lost their protective canopies of leaves and there is no choice but to stay indoors. The rain has been unrelenting this past month or so. And the mean temperatures quite mean; very much cooler than the norm for this time of year. But Nature has never been known to extend herself to pleasure us; we get what we get, she just isn't in the habit of consulting. It's been cold enough for the rain to turn to snow and icy pellets. In the ravine, the creeks are roiling with water tumbling down over fallen branches, assembled detritus. The trails are water-sodden, slick and deep in muck. The protection formerly afforded by the thick canopy of leaves is no longer there. No let-up at all in the rain meant no jaunt-of-the-day.

So we turned to other things. For one, visiting a friend in the hospital who has had to undergo surgery to repair vast harm done to musculature. Who would believe that an operation on a sorely wonky shoulder because of inordinate strain would result in a week of hospital stay and unbelievable levels of pain. Pain so dire that the shoulder requires constant freezing to innure the nerve system, and even that is insufficient so that the patient must also self-administer increments of pain relief? What to bring along? Reading material comes first to mind. And you sit there, and you talk, and talk, and observe a grown man attempting to assuage the insult to his body, with no success.

And then there are other things to do, other places to go to. Say, for example, the much-advertised advent of the annual antique show and sale? We're interested in antiques so why not go along and peruse the offerings? Never know what we might see. In any event, it's entertaining beyond compare to mosey about the various stalls, to greet familiar faces, to assess the quality and beauty of all manner of objects that fall into the categories we so much admire.

And that's just what we did. Bought our tickets for admission, hoisted our two little dogs into their over-the-shoulder bags and sauntered down aisle after aisle of offerings. For every booth that sold furniture, porcelains, paintings, objets d'art, clocks, books, there would be at least one set up to sell jewellery. Those we avoided, and even then were able to only concentrate briefly on each vendor's goodies; there was just too much to see. And too many people to stop and talk with for too long. But it's part of the process, part of the fun, part of the satisfaction, the enjoyment of the event.

Our little dogs are so well behaved; they just snuggle into their bags and go to sleep. From time to time they're noticed and much of a fuss is made over them. They're agreeable with the attention and offer their considered opinions when invariably questioned by admirers what they think of the event, and were they having fun... Then they settle back down, ruminate to themselves about the peculiarities of human beings, and go back to sleep.

We see a small marble piece representing two Spartan youth wrestling, and we're really taken by it. It's really well done, and we think it's a copy of an early Greek sculpture, but aren't certain; nor is the vendor. We'd think about it. We see countless paintings, oil and watercolour, some by artists we're familiar with, others not. We see a small brass-case, crystal-sided 19th century carriage clock, and the price is right, and it's in working conditon, and we've always wanted one.

We drive back home through pounding, wind-tossed rain. Visibility on the highway is dreadful. The engineering of the road so poor that the water simply continues to puddle on it, and then is thrown up constantly by the vehicles passing by. It's a nasty day, to be sure, and no let-up in view. Makes one think why don't we value more than we seem to all those other days of mild temperatures, plenty of sun, gentle breezes...?

Once home Button and Riley wander about the front of the house for a few minutes, but they have no wish to stay out in the pounding rain, and in we all go. To settle down in the comfort of our living room, to read the newspapers, and to scan the weather report. Oops, all-night rain. Tomorrow, more rain. Possibility of light snow. Winds about 60kmh, gusting to 90kmh.

Time of year.