Rainy Daze

above: This is a picture of Denali when it’s cloudy

It has rained 8 of the last 9 days. I am afraid that my faux pas with the passports, that put our schedule behind a few weeks, is now coming back to haunt me. If we were on our original schedule, we would have finished up with Alaska before the rainy season. Now we are smack dab in the middle of it.

That’s not to say that I don’t like rain, I do. In fact, I love a rainy day here and there and I especially like a good thunderstorm. But, this is the kind of rain that goes on and on and on and on, day and night. Nothing but grey, cool, gloomy and wet (those of you in the Southeast are excused from trying to identify with this). I won’t even talk about the mud!

We have had such good luck with the weather up until now that we know how amazing it can be on a beautiful day. So, we can also appreciate what we are missing due to the gloom.

We are currently in Talkeetna where there are spectacular views of Denali…..on a clear day. So, do we hang around for a while waiting for a break in the weather or just say “oh well” and move on? I sure would hate to miss a peek at the peak. But, it may rain everyday for the next month.

We have managed the rainy days in the past by doing indoor things such as going to museums, doing schoolwork, running errands and visiting with friends. We have even gone to a couple of indoor pools. But, we are beginning to exhaust those other options and if the kids continue their schoolwork at this “rainy day rate”, they should be able to graduate by the end of next week. Plus, I really want to see Denali!

There are two other pieces of this situation to consider; the Hippygeek relies on the sun to keep his batteries charged and the Dudes have way too much energy to be cooped up in a breadbox (RV).

With one day of rain, the Hippygeek gets a little bummed. With two days of rain, he gets discouraged. With three days of rain, he starts to get agitated. With four days of rain, he just plain gets depressed. With five days of rain, well, we are way beyond that now. He may just need to be medivacked to Phoenix.

The Dudes have handled it much better, even constructively. They got out the construction paper, tape, stapler etc. and worked together designing their own house. The three dimensional model has two bedrooms (one for each of them), a kitchen and a bathroom. There is art on the walls, computers on the desks, flat screen TV’s, a refrigerator with food in it, a dog, even food in the dog’s bowl! (curiously, there are no parents or room for parents in this home). They have spent two weeks building and playing (cooperatively, I might add) with their house.

But, kids are like puppies, they NEED to run around crazy EVERYDAY and it’s hard to fit that in when they can’t go outside.

So, here we are stuck in a rainy daze, a kind of depressed stupor, a paralyzing funk. If I were by myself, I would just curl up with a library full of books until the rainy season was over (that would be a slice of heaven for me). But, the Hippygeek needs emergent solar resuscitation and the Dudes will drive US crazy if they don’t get an opportunity to go crazy on a playground soon.

So, what do we do? Please submit any ideas that you may have to help us get through the rainy daze. All submissions will be seriously considered and appreciated. Unfortunately, I don’t have the funding to award iPads and such to the person whose idea successfully pulls us through. Just know that you will be contributing to a good cause.

 “Millions long for immortality who don’t know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.” Susan Ertz