Of Mud and Mops

What to do? What to do? It was suddenly and inexplicably sunny outside today, and this is Astoria, and hell, it's supposed to be raining cats, dogs, teaspoons and muffins 24/7 sideways, upways, and anyway it can, with the occasional accompanying bellowing winds that shake your house and rattle your teeth.

I kept looking out the window and thinking I was imagining things ... it's not really sunny, is it? ... and searching out over the grand Astoria Bridge for clouds coming in off the Pacific. Which is a ridiculous theory on my part, since storms here can come from anywhere, sometimes seeming to materialize from merely a thought or a whisper, in the flick of a whisker.

I was so paranoid about the nice weather, in fact, I couldn't make myself take the doggies for a walk. Took them for a nice cavort yesterday, and everything was just delightful, then on the way home it started raining out of nowhere. Magical rain someone summoned up, it seemed.

So today, I kept going outside, eyeing the sky in every direction thinkable for clouds or imminent monsoons, and could see nothing but blue skies, so I literally didn't believe my eyes. The restless doggies didn't get their sniff-and-piss stroll, and were confined to mincing on the now-slippery dog-run perched on the mudslide, slogging through the area within the posts and piers under the house, and rat-patrol in the basement.

It's not like I am afraid of the rain or anything silly like that, it's just that bringing home wet, muddy, soggy dogs is not one of the finer experiences in life. I don't have a mud room, where we could drop off all the soggies and towel down. Oh hell no. I open the front door, and they gallop in, shaking off water and splattering mud, until the entire first floor of the house is wet and mud-soaked, and smelling like a doggie salt marsh at low tide.

My pal Margot, when she was visiting, commented that I may well have the cleanest floors in this galaxy or any other, since she rarely saw me without a mop in my hands. Personally, I have come to believe that carrying a mop is an Astoria fashion statement.

Astoria Photografpix

Astoria, Astoria weather, mud, mop