Wednesday, September 29, 2004

The Land of No Weather

I'm ready to go home now. I'm wet enough to last for another Egyptian year, I'm sure. The inhabitants of the eastern part of the US have had more than their share of rain this fall thanks to the efforts of hurricanes Frances, Ivan and now Jeanne. They have my sympathy and they can also have all that rain. I've had enough, thank you.

When I spoke to my daughter last week before flying out, she told me that they were "enjoying' cloudy skies, rain and chilly weather. Naturally, when I arrived it was sunny, bright and in the mid to high 20's, since I'd mostly packed sweaters. Oh well. I had some t-shirts along, so it all was manageable. That is until today. Today the tail end of Jeanne decided to visit the Big Apple and it began raining this morning. We had showers, drizzles and a bit of wind all day, but it wasn't so bad since after all, most of New York is indoors. But this evening we decided to venture into Chinatown for some Peking duck and when we emerged from our poultry orgy, we ran smack into a full gale. The winds were howling around corners, turning umbrellas inside out and driving the rain into parts of our bodies that we never expected to get wet. With the recent hikes in the prices of the Metro and the cabs in New York, we don't usually take a taxi here, but we made an exception tonight. I simply couldn't take getting any wetter.

We joke that Egypt appoints a weatherman about once every three hundred years or so. He accepts the job, walks outside to look around, and then announces that the weather will be sunny and the wind will come from the north for the most part. He then leaves since there will be no change in the weather for the next three hundred years. I can live with that sort of weather.

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