Walking through the neighborhood on a rainy afternoon

My car is in the shop today, so I decided to walk to the store. It’s only 2 miles round trip, and it is a decidedly mild day for January in New England; certainly not the winter in New England about which Robert Frost wrote and Barry Manilow crooned. In fact, it is raining – a warm rain, at that, with a beautiful warm breeze that hints of a spring that is still several months in the future. As I walk, random thoughts pass through my head...

I wish I didn’t wear this heavy sweatshirt, but it just seems wrong to be out in short sleeves in January…

I hate to think about what all this warm, wet weather is going to do to the mosquito population next summer. My guess is that there will be as many as to rival Minnesota. The”Land of 10,000 Lakes” also means that it’s the “Land of 1,000,000 Mosquitoes”. I bet they don’t mention that in their tourism brochures…

How many songs have been written about rain? There’s “I wish it would rain” by Phil Collins…”I think it’s going to rain today” by Randy Newman, and covered by Bette Midler and Peter Gabriel...”The Rain”, by Oran “Juice” Jones…wow, Casey Kasem would be proud of me! If he weren’t dead, that is. Oh, and how can I forget, “Blame it on the rain”, by whoever it was Milli Vanilli fronted…”Purple Rain”, by Prince…

In spite of the mosquito population, I would like to visit Minnesota; visit Paisley Park and the museums of Minneapolis…if I go in the winter I can avoid the mosquitoes and see the Packers play the Vikings…that is if it isn’t so cold my eyes freeze shut. If I go in October and the Twins are having a good year...yeah, that's probably not going to happen....

How is it that America’s Icebox has not been affected by climate change? I think I’d like to move out that way someday…I hear the people are very friendly and that the economy is good. Plus, a state that elected comedian Al Franken to the Senate – and then told him to resign for being an ass – sounds alright to me. How did I get thinking about Minnesota? Oh yeah, Prince. Or was it mosquitoes? It was mosquitoes…

Speaking of being forced to resign for being an ass, I wonder whatever happened to former Senator Lincoln Chafee? Resigned from his own political party because they wouldn’t give him the nomination for his re-election as Governor. Our very own Lyndon B. Johnson…no, wait, Johnson had the intelligence not to run for re-election. Did Chafee? I can’t remember. I know he decided to run for President. Maybe that was it…if you fail at aiming high, aim higher. I love Rhode Island. We are so quirky!

Great, now I have Phil Collins songs stuck in my head, and not even good Phil Collins songs…why couldn’t it be another member of Genesis? I wouldn’t mind Peter Gabriel songs. I like Peter Gabriel! Do kids today even know who he is? Do Millennials? Do I care?

I remember the first time I realized I was an adult: a teenager thought my music was dorky and I didn’t care. Now I remember the time I discovered my heavy metal friends knew what I thought was my deepest secret – that I liked Ann Murray and Dan Fogelberg and listed to Lite Rock 105. I was so touched that they thought it was adorable; that they liked all the parts of me, not just the parts that were like them…

“All of me” by John Legend. That song is the song I would choose as a love song to myself. I just have to reach that point of self-acceptance. I’m getting there. Didn’t Whitney Houston sing that learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all? That version was a cover, too, but I forget who sang the original. I’m pretty sure it was a country song…Whitney dipped into that well twice and twice came up a winner!

“All of me” was the name of a song recorded back in the 1930’s, but John Legend's song is not the same one. I like this one better…

WTF? Why is the rain purple? Oh…it’s just reflecting the color in the neighbor’s stained glass window. Still, that was pretty awesome…

Who puts a stained glass window on a raised ranch in the middle of North Providence? Lincoln, yeah…but NP? Now that I think about it, maybe I’ll get a front door with a stained glass panel. That would be pretty…

I should call my mother…

I should call my brother…no, he should call me. He never answers or returns my calls. Is that a guy thing, or just a brother thing?

I miss my gay BFF…Jimmy would have been 48 this month. It’s been 9 years since he passed…why does it still feel like a dagger through my heart?

Is that the rain on my face…or am I just sweating from the January heat?

KJM

1.12.18