Enjoying the Weather

According to my.msn.com, the weather in Honolulu today is 80 degrees and sunny. It's December 19th. That's so cool. As a reference, the weather in Chicago (also according to my.msn) is 32 and cloudy, Memphis is 57 and cloudy, and Murfreesboro is 55 and cloudy. Yes, I keep track of the weather in all the places I have lived. It's not that I'm that sort of geek, it's mostly that I never bothered to take any of those locations off my my.msn.com weather information thingy.

In Chicago, that weather information thingy allowed me to feel particularly like a martyr as I watched the well-above-freezing temps in TN versus the plummeting temps just outdoors. It allowed me to appreciate how very 'put out' I was by having to wear all sorts of layers of clothes when I hate wearing all sorts of layers of clothes. Here, the weather information thingy allows me to appreciate the difference between where I am now and where I was last year. Particularly the fact that I no longer have to wear all sorts of layers of clothes.

I swear, this post is not about lording my good fortune over the rest of you. It's more about enjoying my good fortune while it lasts.

Michael picked up a couple of chairs off the side of the road yesterday morning. They are currently flanking our front door, on the outside of it, but I don't know if that'll last. I'm not entirely sure that we're not breaking fire codes by having chairs out there, obstructing access to the stairs. They may eventually go back onto our very cramped lanai, to take up space near the washer-dryer and water heater. But I like them where they are, because the view (although not quite good) is better in the front of our apartment than the back. More open, at least.

This morning, I awoke early (well, early by Xmas vacation standards) and had two cups of coffee and a slice of patitsa sitting out on our balcony, watching the traffic and feeling the breeze. It's a beautiful day today. The still air is warm and the breeze is cool and the sky is blue and the clouds are white and Honolulu's high is definitely not the temperature at which water freezes.

The weather has been particularly good here this last week, in comparison to the weather we had BEFORE they fixed the holes in our roof. For a month we had a string of torrential downpours. Thunderstorms. Thunderstorms are uncommon here, but we had them nearly every day for a good while. They came into our kitchen through the ceiling. They came in through the windows, blowing clear sideways six feet in. They kept me indoors if I could help it. There were not your typical Hawaiian rain, that happens while it's still sunny, lasts ten minutes or so, and doesn't really bother anyone, even if you don't have an umbrella on you. I don't want to tempt fate by claiming these storms are over; I'm just glad that they're not happening right now. Because it means I can go outside and have my morning coffee there, and keep our windows open without worrying about getting gusts of water blown in.

Another thing that's really cool about Hawaiian weather is its penchant for rainbows. Rainbows are far less common where I'm from than they are here. Every time I see one (almost every day), I get this jolt of excitement and feel like a kid again. Every time I see one I feel this way, even after six months.

But the coolest thing was a couple weeks ago on the way to the North Shore for filming, the car I was in was going over a bridge in the mountains and we came within 20 feet of a rainbow! No kidding! It was right there -- thick and almost tangible. It looked like a colorful plasma, shooting from high in the sky down into the valley over which we were passing, nearly touching the bridge as we went by. I kept expecting it to dissipate as we neared, but it stayed put and we got very, very near to the end of the rainbow.

Ryan slowed the car and we all awed over it... four kids from Tennessee, North Carolina, Argentina, and Indonesia, dumbstruck over this colorful illusion.

Except it didn't look like an illusion. It looked like you could walk into it and be painted those colors. It was like childhood dreams and fantasies, long outgrown.

I look out my living room window and I see city. And there are trees and grass and broken down buildings and overgrown lots and crumbling asphalt that kind of passes for a sidewalk, but even still the weather is great and the neighbors are friendly and I just feel so comfortable here. But then sometimes I'm out there and suddenly I can feel the land beneath me like a living thing, and I can understand why Native Hawaiians believe that the land is literally their ancestor. Sometimes I can feel the spirit of this place and it's like sitting in the middle of the heart of God.

So yes, absolutely I am enjoying the weather here. It's brilliant.