Winter

Whew, I woke up cold this morning, struggling to pull the sheet over me. I've been using a rolled towel as a bolster and unfurled it to cover me. The room temp was only 25. And now just after 9 in my office I have the front and back windows open but haven't turned on the AC. It is overcast, there was a single clap of thunder around 7, and it spit on me on my way to school at 8. My weather widget predicts rain over the next 3-4 days (though it has done that before and been wrong).

Yesterday it got dark in the afternoon, but nothing came of it. But I do think at some point today we will get a big blast. Since I'm planning on scooting around later I hope I can avoid the weather. We get so little weather here (in the Canadian sense of "if you don't like it just wait five minutes"). It hasn't rained since I moved into the bungalow; it will be a shame to be inconvenienced by a once in a month event.

Well, I made it in and out of town without any 'weather.' There was a gentle sprinkle as I went to the bank this morning, and I still haven't turned the air conditioner on, but it did warm up in the afternoon; though it was still quite pleasant.

In general, the weather has changed since I first arrived. The first month was hot and hazy. I'm living almost on the equator, but have only worn sunscreen once, shortly after I arrived. I also gave up wearing a hat. In that first month, with my wanderings around campus I neither burned nor tanned.

In February, we had about one great rain a week. The first big storm blew away a lot of the dust in the air, so that the day after was hotter than usual because of the absence of haze. Within two days the haze was back. But it wasn't until March that I really started to get anything like a tan line. I have several now, one very sharp one around my neck from a long walk on Saturday with a well-fitted T-shirt. The line separates the white from the red. Throughout March the haze has diminished, but the temperature and humidity have also gone down a bit. That, and I've acclimatized to the conditions here. 

No rain today. But I'm optimistic we will get some this week. It just feels and smells like it. I have yet to be able to sit in the screened hallway of Bungalow No. 1 and watch, hear, and smell a tropical deluge dance on the flagstones of the courtyard.