Today has been a good day. Work was relaxed; there were no panicked situations waiting to explode, or any moments of unfettered mania. The day just moved along with it’s own lazy pace. Its flow has been more natural, dare I say peaceful even.
It has rained here for 7 days straight. It really reminds me of home. Apparently there has been a rush on for umbrellas and the city’s retailers have been caught flat-footed by it. It’s so rare for Calgary to get this much moisture at one time. It feels more like Atlantic Canada, and much less like Alberta these days. I found myself dancing a little on my way to work. Twirling my umbrella, and singing along to Madeline Peyroux’s “Don’t Wait too long.” It was like something out of a cheesy musical, yet it was mentally refreshing at the same time.
I actually enjoy walking in the rain. I love the smell in the air after it rains. For me it’s the scent of renewal. Every time I draw air into my lungs, it feels like everything around me is a little less grimy, and just a little livelier. Perhaps that’s a strange notion, but I really don’t care.
Only once that I can recall, have I found rain eerie. It was a few years ago. I was on my way to the Ship and Anchor with a good friend of mine, and we wound up parking on a side street that was a couple of blocks away. In most respects, it was a rather typical apartment building type of neighbourhood. There were six story buildings on both sides of the street, with mature trees lining the sidewalks.
It was about midnight, and it had been raining quite hard. The streets were shiny and had the look of a fun house mirror, brilliantly reflecting the streetlights upward. It almost looked as if there were lights in the asphalt.
At the end of the street there was a church. Now, I’m not too sure what flavour of Christian faith it was, but it had a blazing red cross in its steeple. The cross was reflecting its image onto the pavement too. It was distorted and sprawled up the street. It looked to be about twenty feet tall, and roughly ten feet wide. It appeared fuzzy, and had a bent look to it, like when you peer at a partially submerged object and it seems all-askew.
It was kind of creepy. It was a little oppressive seeing this giant blazing cross. It gave me a shudder at first, buy then it started to remind me of the Bat signal. I half expected to see a priest in his vestments and an altar boy run out of the church and jump into a hearse and speed away. (insert theme music here…)
Anyway… More in a bit.
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