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After spending an entire day cooped up at home, watching the rain beating down hard and the wind literally whipping the crap out of the poor trees, I was desperate to get some fresh air. Have I mentioned about my inane craving for getting out at least once a day out in the open? Maybe not. Anyways, I had decided to venture out, rain or not at an unearthly hour of 11:00pm. The gods may have heard that wish. The skies cleared precisely at the eleventh hour (pun intended). They seem to hear the wrong ones lately. All my sissy friends backed out or were just tired to brave the storm again after being drenched earlier.
I call up my parents on my cell, as I take our regular route. The howling winds make it difficult to carry on a meaningful conversation so I just call up my brother and inform him that if he has a foot of snow in winter up north, I have a foot of rain in peak-hurricane season down south. Done with the weekly formalities, I continue walking amidst paths strewn with dead twigs and discarded foliage. Some are still twitching as if life has been hurriedly snuffed out of them. I soon realize that is merely the mischievous prank of the wind. The wind picks up speed and dies almost like a sinuous curve except with no predictability. The tall trees get hit hardest as they struggle to maintain the posture. The smaller shrubs merely heave a sigh of relief as the wind just ruffles them. All the swaying and heaving flora having a massive intercourse unabashedly with the wind, complete with orgasmic moaning with a single crazy human witnessing it all, makes it an interesting spectacle of nature. The perfunctory patrol car on its rounds tries to instill a sense of order in chaotic surroundings. With no one around, it soon vanishes too.
I take the longer circuitous route which would take a full two miles from home. I get quizzical looks from folks driving home in a hurry. I just wish I had a long flowing white robe to give a ghostly look. The crash count would have definitely been higher – White apparition leads to a dozen crashes – would read the next day’s paper. I chuckle to myself at this sadistic thought. With no one to accompany me, it gives me quality time to sort out certain things in my life. Then I realize that I have a lot of that already nevertheless the dead of the night with howling wind makes it more dramatic. The washed and thoroughly scrubbed fresh air does give you a heady feeling though and worries seem to vanish for a fleeting moment.
It slowly starts to drizzle. Not pouring rain but mere fat droplets of the late clouds. Soon, I am drenched but I don’t mind it. It has been long since I have been out in the rain. The Maroon 5 song seems like a perfect soundtrack for the moment. Singin in the Rain is history. After a solid hour and a half in the hurricane wind, I am back home.
Ah-ha! That really felt great. I am thinking of taking solitary walks more often.
by Patrix | on Sunday, September 19th, 2004 at 11:05 pm | 
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September 20th, 2004 at 12:57 am reply
Gosh! That was almost poetic. But hurricane as a muse?? ;-)
*psst Alpha, note a ‘male hurricane’*
September 20th, 2004 at 1:07 am reply
Leela - You sure have reason to be surprised at my recent muse..uh-oh!was that reason enuf to let Alpha loose on me?
September 20th, 2004 at 4:29 am reply
:) solitary walks works like magic :) a walk in the rain, i have done. not a walk in a hurricane :)
September 20th, 2004 at 7:02 am reply
You know turning 28 is not all that bad… So cheer up and stop taking those anti-depressant pills!
psst..leela, how am I supposed to react to the ‘he-hurricane’ bit?
September 20th, 2004 at 12:26 pm reply
Pompy - Yup..thatz a part of Extreme Passive Recreation but won’t make for good reality TV.
Alpha - You got your age mixed with mine again..I am much younger. Anti-depressant pills taste lot better than those sleeping pills, shall I send a batch? :) me lost on the he-hurricane bit too..Lee, reading too many spy-weather novels?
September 20th, 2004 at 12:31 pm reply
Hi Patrix - I have been reading your blog for a while now. You write very well and this post especially forced me to post a comment since I was doing the same thing on Friday - walking my dog in the rain and squall. A lady actually stopped her car and told me to go home cause they had sighted a tornado where we live. But I totally agree with you, it was fun being out there at that time. Your other posts have been interesting too. Keep it up!
September 20th, 2004 at 1:04 pm reply
Nami - Nice to have you around and see you commenting. Maybe it is just the inherent danger that makes such things exciting.
September 20th, 2004 at 1:45 pm reply
Danger sure sets your creative juices flowing Patrix. Or is it the solitary walks that do the magic? Either way, beautiful writing.
September 20th, 2004 at 2:12 pm reply
Hey Patrix ,
HAPPY BDAY !!! When is the good day ??? I also have a question when you move blogs from say rediff to another how do you move all the archives ?
September 20th, 2004 at 3:37 pm reply
Minds Eye - Thanks. It can be seen as the mix of the danger and solitude…each complements the other.
Lamya - The day is long gone :) but thanks. Rediff unfortunately doesn’t archive its post in a OPML format which would make it easier to export to another place. I had to manually cut-paste the archives..u may notice that it still is not done entirely…can be boring and tedious.
September 20th, 2004 at 7:27 pm reply
I miss rain so much!!! I wish it would rain here…:(
September 20th, 2004 at 10:17 pm reply
Queer - No rain up there? U in Chicago, right?
September 20th, 2004 at 11:53 pm reply
Phsss… Alpha, I don’t how. I thought you’d make something out of it. ;-)
Patrix, *much* younger???
September 20th, 2004 at 11:55 pm reply
how = know (in previous comment)
September 21st, 2004 at 12:10 am reply
Leela - Guess Alpha ran out of ideas *Whew!*…yeah yeah..in anti-dog years much younger.
September 22nd, 2004 at 6:14 am reply
nothing like a good summer storm..:). i’ve revelled in a few of my own so i should know.
maroon 5 is addictive!
September 22nd, 2004 at 2:15 pm reply
Ashi - We have had more than our share of storms this summer and more are lined up.