Stick It, Skivvy

So much for the cool, crisp days of fall where the sky is a hundred shades of pink and the breeze blows across your skin like a soft sweater, and the sun shines bright across blue skies. 

This weather blows.  Period.  Cold, dark, rainy and incessant.  I often describe it as the devil's carnival (but then I think that giving the devil, hereinafter referred to as Skivvy, any kind of acknowledgement in any scenario is just plain stupid) because it puts people in dark moods, swearing at other drivers on the road, snapping at loved ones, and shortening patience all around.  I think about the guys that have to drive down the road picking up garbage cans and recycle bins, dump them, replace them at the side of the road, hop on the back and do it again and again, every ten feet or so for a full day. I think about how aggravating it is for me to even consider the fact that I have to, at some point, collect those cans, tip them over to get rid of all the water and drag them back up the road and driveway and put them in my garage until next time.  I curse this weather, and Skivvy loves that.

Skivvy can stick it. I'm going to find something positive in all of this, despite the wet feet, the cold-bone chill, the slippery roads, the cranky people, the tired eyes, the stuffed sinuses, the frizzy hair. There has to be something.

Last week, the rain was pouring.  I was on my way to lunch with a bunch of old co-workers.  After taking a shower and getting dressed, making up my face, I let my hair go.  I keep it wet in this weather and just let it dry naturally.  What's the point of blow-drying it?  So I left the house with wet ringlets and was on my way.  At the first turn, after leaving my house, I saw an old man - mid-eighties - pushing his car from an intersection.  He was huffing and puffing, holding up traffic and struggling to get a piece of crap car across a busy road. 

"Bah!"  I said as I looked around at all the warm people in their warm trucks.  I put my hazards on, parked on the side of the road and ran to help the man.  I caught eyes with a young guy in a pick-up who was sitting two cars behind the guy, watching and waiting for the old man to push the car alone.  I looked at him, raised my hands at him as if to say, "What the ??" and began pushing with the old man.  As soon as my hands touched the back of the car, it moved.  It was easy.  The rain was pouring, the roads were puddles but the physical labor was easy.   After we got it on the side of the road, I turned and saw the guy from the pick-up running toward us to help.  "Too late now, dude..."  I wanted to say it, scream that an eighty year old man compels a thirty year old man to get off his lazy ass and help, but I didn't say anything.  The old man hugged me and told me I was an angel.  And for a second, I felt like one.

Despite my awesome boots getting soaked, the hem of my pants dripping, my suit coat drenched and a whole lot of frizz on top of my head, I felt good inside.  An older woman, late seventies, pulled up beside me and said, "I would have helped but I have a bad hip..."  She must have seen the judgment in my eyes when I looked at the young guy.  I said, "No, you are all dressed up and you shouldn't have anything to do with that kind of stuff..."  She smiled and wished me a good day.  After that, it was a good day.

Skivvy can't stop that kind of stuff.  He can't stop it.  Ha!  The only thing Skivvy can do is love the rain and dreariness of Mother Nature (he certainly doesn't have the power to produce it) and hope that people give in to their emotions and moods of these dreary days, and then, like a lazy animal, find enjoyment in those sufferings.  I am sure he was giggling as the old man stepped out of his car to push it across the road.  Yet I like to think that he was so damn mad when he saw me get out of my truck to help.  That, in itself, is worth getting soaked day after day after day...  stick it Skivvy, you can't win.

So, on days like today when the weather is driving you mad, think about the old man pushing his car in the rain.  Things could be worse.  When you seen an ambulance with flashing lights racing by, say a prayer.  If the street light is out and an officer is directing traffic, find patience and endure.  If your boots get soaked and your skin is stone cold, so what, it's just water.  The sun will shine again, and Skivvy will hate that.

Lord knows what a good hard rain can do for a soul...