Rainy Days and Mondays

It's fall. Fally fall in full force.  We've had several rainy days in a row, and the air has that cool dampness to it that collects itself on soggy leaves.  It's funny how so recently the air was filled with green, swaying hotness.  Now, a walk in the park means a fine snow of colorful leaves.  It smells like oak outside, and a wet leaf got stuck under my windshield wiper while I was driving today.  Every time it would be pushed across the windshield, a slimy autumnal streak would follow.

The front steps at our house on a rainy fall day.

I was out because I ordered a shawl from Free People for winter.  Our house gets super cold in the winter and sitting around in heavy sweatshirts sometimes makes me feel like I'm stuck in a permanent sick day (but one where I still have to work!), so I wanted something that looks nice and makes me feel like I got dressed that would also keep me warm.  I knew it had arrived at the post office over the weekend, so I headed out to get it.  After that I drove over to a small fresh market where I bought some fruits and vegetables for the week.

While I was driving, I had a thought: this is peaceful and nice.  Something about that thought kind of hit me like a ton of bricks.  So recently and so many times, rainy days really got me down (just like the song says...).  The mixture of soggy and cold is bound to infiltrate any bubble of happiness that could exist around someone.  Particularly when you're walking around in it (New York City, I'm looking at you...!).  Sure, I was in a car, so it was easier for me to avoid that common bone-chilled feeling.  But I don't know.  There was just something about the leaves and the trees and whatever contentedness has been brewing within me over this past year here in Vermont that just let me have no anger or discontentment or annoyance toward the rain.  I just thought, "Oh, it's rainy today."  That's really never happened to me before, that I can think of.  I guess I just wonder what it means, and I hope that it'll last.

In other news, we got a garbage can!  It has the best name/label ever:

Our bear-proof garbage can label.

I mean really, why would a barracuda ever be attacking a bear?  And the bear has such a hilarious expression on his face.  Is he scared of that barracuda?  Did he really not notice the blue sea creature circling him as he went to touch that garbage can?  And didn't he notice that the garbage can he's trying to get into also has a Bearicuda Bin label on it?  There was no way he was getting away with this!  Learn something, bears!