It’s Spring — Drinks all around!
What a weird year this is. First our New Year’s flooding and drenching gives way to a balmy, gorgeous January, and everyone is worried that winter is over and the rain has gone. Then Wednesday we finally got a single sunny day in the midst of over a month of straight rain, with more rain on the way through April. There is just no making sense of the weather anymore.
I spent Wednesday morning hauling in straw bales to help with the landscaping, then worked at one job, then another, walked the dog, returned the truck I borrowed, brought in some firewood, worked some more, and then sat back and marveled at such Spring-like, energetic behavior. I didn’t know I had it in me.
I started this blog last year right before May Day, and talked about how making those preparations always changes me. This year I would have happily taken a year off from organizing a big happy party, even though I love having May Day at my house and it always gives me a boost of energy. Any vineyard tender will tell you that after a year of heavy output the vines yield a much smaller crop the next year to recover. I have felt like those vines needing a rest, but my daughters insisted that we keep the tradition going even though the family was splitting, so I bowed to their greater wisdom and started in on the to-do lists.
Starting from ground zero in a new place that’s still basically a construction site has been a huge amount of work, but now that I’m halfway through it’s actually becoming enjoyable. I have been blessed with many friends who have helped me do the heavy lifting required — a special tip of the hat to Corby for cutting down a tree and hauling it up here with Macha’s help to be the new maypole! I somehow managed to overcome my torpor in large enough doses to make the phone calls and emails required to set things up, Lyra created an absolutely beautiful flyer, the landscaping is now inspiring rather than daunting, and things are looking up.
All this is a microcosm to me, a personal footnote against my greater concern of how we as a society cope with cataclysmic change. At the moment, there is nothing in the collective imagination that so much represents cataclysmic change than the weather. We are in for it, no doubt about it. Global warming is here to stay until possibly our great-grandchildrens’ time, and the only thing we know is that the weather is guaranteed to get even weirder than it is now.
Obviously we must work like hell to stop doing the stuff that will make it more severe and long-lasting. Any elected official who does not take that work seriously must be educated or replaced, and quickly. We need to protect ourselves and each other as best we can from dangers we can foresee arising from bizarre weather: tornadoes, hurricanes, flooding, mudslides, drought, locusts, dying forests, rising seawaters, etc. All that is clear, and is daunting work all by itself.
But the personal piece is just as important, especially as it tends to get overlooked in our worst-case-scenario planning and preparations. Our personal challenge is to enjoy the weather we are given, as best we can. So instead of fearing Spring, worrying about whether it will ever stop raining, worrying about whether after this rain we’ll never see another drop, I’ve changed my tune. It’s “Drinks all around!” to quote Captain Jack Sparrow. (but you have heard of him)
So this weather is making us all feel like we live in Portland or Seattle. The good news is that we get to be there without all the travel expenses — and when it clears up, we’re right back in California. The only bad side is not getting to hang out with friends who actually live in Portland or Seattle; we’ll have to read their blogs to find out where the weather is teleporting them to.
Anyway, an upbeat post for another gray day in a string of gray days. And now Jojo and I are going to the Bodega Bay Fisherman’s Festival to witness the blessing of the fleet at the beginning of another precarious salmon season. Drinks all around!
