When the rain comes, they run and hide their head. You can see them. They dart and dodge and duck and make a lot of undignified noises.
[Look there goes one now!]
The rains of finter (since we no longer have a fall season let’s merge it into winter) have now begun. As a consequence, and as if triggered by some automated response system, EVERYTHING has been cancelled.
When the rain comes, we put a stop to anything and everything we have planned for the rest of the day. We call our friends and say, “But it’s raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaing.” In the alternative, they will say it to us. The effect is much the same.
When the rain comes, we even cancel going to the movies. Why? Do we fear that incipient precipitation will permeate the roof and dampen our coifs? Possibly, but I rather think we are afraid of the eighteen steps we may have to take from door to car and eighteen more from car to the doors of Usce. Even if we are in the underground parking.
Fully hatted and umbrellaed.
Belgrade hardly qualifies as the Home of Perfect Weather. It is not as if we are accustomed to 364 days of glorious sunshine and are discombobulated by an anomalous raindrop. No, indeed. Belgrade has what people like to call a “continental climate” – it gets unbearably hot in the summer, unmentionably cold in the winter, and in the meantime it is either a) raining or b) blowing down the dreaded Košava. Wedged in and around all this Weather, we may have quite a few lovely days.
All this to say, that we really should be used to this. The rain comes. And we scuttle. And that is not the end of it. Each year we always read how the snow “surprised us this year” (and therefore we could not clear the roads). Surprised? Really? This is Belgrade. It snows in Belgrade. Am I the only one who noticed?
Today it is raining. Today I have already heard of at least seven sets of plans for the afternoon/evening that have been thwarted by the rain. We could – no, it’s raining. What if we – no, it’s raining. Well then we could always – are you kidding? Did you SEE the rain?
It is unclear to me whether this is an effect of squeamishness about getting wet or if it has other proximate causes. When the rain comes, for example, our Internet service gets spotty. When we call the Provider, they tell us: “It’s raining.” When the rain comes, the traffic becomes unnavigable. This, one assumes, happens because everyone is rushing to get home and OUT OF THE RAIN. People who took the trolley-bus to work may run home, get the car, and then drive back home.
Not to be left out.
Armed as I am with my back-up umbrella, I have not changed my plans since this morning. I will carry them out to the fullest and return slightly dampened but accomplished.
Of course it has been raining since morning. And my plans were to go home and read a book.