It’s positively shitting down rain today. Yes, I know “we need it” (the tiresome mantra of every drought-aware Southern Californian,) but the rain is deciding to come down all at once, forcing me to figure out how to work an umbrella again and to drive the hair-raising streets and highways. Half the population down here creep along in their cars, dazed, as if they’re Richard Dreyfuss and the damn spaceship is hovering right above. The other half pay absolutely no attention and blaze along at screaming speeds — until, of course, they plow into a semi and ruin the commute for the rest of us.

Okay, so you got it: raining. I have to admit that rainy afternoons at home freak me out a little. Or, more exactly, I’m prone to being scared more easily when it’s dim and windy and stormy outside.

Witness an account from an earlier post:

I saw Don’t Look Now about 12 years ago on video, on a rainy day in San Francisco, with a boyfriend. It got to us, big time — one big mindfuckapalooza. K I clung to each other while watching it, and it took a long walk outside and several beers in a nearby bar to get back to “normal.”

Definitely, something about the movie in combination with the storm outside made the experience terrifying. I’m fine when it’s dark and stormy out, usually — for some reason, a grim, gray afternoon light really gets my hackles up.

So. I happen to be working from home today and it’s early afternoon. My anxiety has fairly low-level, that is, until my computer started talking. I think I pick up truck dispatch radio signals through my computer speakers every once in a while. Usually it’s just a few unintelligible crackly bits. But, a few minutes ago, as I sat at my desk, going through a stack of papers, a tinny and fully ledgible voice came through:

This is looking like it’s going to get ugly.

Arrrgh. Please, devil-voice, don’t hurt me!

If I don’t get killed by trees coming to life or by tiny people that live in the computer, I shall be departing tomorrow, in the rain and eventually the snow, to Sequoia National Park to have some high-mountain lodge time with the divine Miss MM, who will be coming from SF.

Apart from the heebie jeebies I’m currently experiencing, this week has been so much better than that last one. Thanks to everyone for the kind words and commiserations. I’ll bring you a pine cone! Bye!