What It's Good For

Rainy days force us to make decisions. The options narrow down a bit because you can't do just any old thing when it is raining. Rainy Saturdays can sometimes cause even more in the way of decision-making because those are the days when most of us aren't working and have plans. The rain doesn't care if we had plans. It comes when it comes. You have to adjust.

Rainy days are not good for certain things. They are not conducive to long walks on the beach or afternoons spent frolicking amongst the fallen autumn leaves. You probably don't want to hang out the laundry to dry since it will take forever and never quite get that nice "outdoorsy" scent you were hoping for. I also don't suggest that you head out for a day of kite-flying unless you are a die-hard Ben Franklin fan and trying to reenact that famous key-on-a-string maneuver. Not that I don't see the appeal, mind you. That would be a once in a lifetime moment. Literally for some...

Rainy days mean looking carefully at your options. Days like that don't have much flexibility. In fact, I can only come up with a very short list of things that are good rainy day activities. First on that list is knitting.

If you can't go outside and the laundry is going to have to go in the dryer whether you like it or not, you might as well sit inside and knit. If it happens to rain all day, then you could probably knit a great deal. You could knit and knit and knit and still have time for a nap. You could take four coffee breaks, phone a friend, invent a new language and compose an epic poem but still have time to knit about forty feet of fabric. There is no excuse for not making progress on the knitting when it is a rainy Saturday and you are stuck inside.

Which is why I'm not offering one. Apparently, I am immune to the rainy day knitting syndrome. I didn't so much as pick up a needle today, much less whip out forty feet of scarf. It's almost like I didn't notice that it was raining or that the holidays are creeping ever closer. The day has gone from rainy and gray to rainy and dark. I've not knit a stitch.

I knit a little bit yesterday. We had a break while teaching the Safety Procedures course and I figured I'd work on The Simple Hat I'm Never Going To Finish. It's pretty much just a tube so it's not anything I have to concentrate on. I managed a couple of rounds before I had to get up and bore the class again with my lecture on how not to get bitten by grumpy students. That's something, I guess.

But it's not much. Not when you compare it to what a person could (and should) be able to knit on a rainy Saturday.

What can I say? The raindrops pattering on the windows were hypnotic and made the hours seep away before I could catch them. I lacked the motivation to move. Well...I had to go to the bathroom a lot, but that is inevitable when a waterfall is pouring from the gutters past your window. You can't help that. Otherwise, there was little in the way of activity over here today.

The list of Rainy Day Options is short and I couldn't even be bothered to take on the thing in the number one spot. I also didn't read or nap so I missed numbers two and three as well. About the only thing that seemed to hold my interest was number four. Everyone here at the manse did very well with that, I think.

Rainy Day Activity #4: Staring out the window at the raindrops

SA