All Hail

Yesterday, we had some pretty cold weather and a hail storm. Here’s a picture of me holding a handful of hail, which was pretty cold.

Eileen and I are both feeling a little yucky. I woke up yesterday with an actual headache. I never get headaches, and if I do, the cure is simply to drink lots of water. Works every time. Except yesterday. Man, my sympathies go out to people who regularly suffer headaches. They are not pleasant. Of course, they’re better than throwing up, but still. I’m really glad I am fortunate enough to not have to deal with them often. I taught class yesterday morning, but pretty much suffered through it. This is “semana santa” in Ecuador and the kids are on vacation, which gives the entire city an air of hope; everyone will be off work beginning mid-day Thursday, and there’s a lot less traffic without all the kids being bussed to school. It’s nice. Having a glimmer of hope makes suffering through teaching a two-hour class more tolerable.

My sister Angie and brother Will are flying in tonight, which is an even stronger source of hope. So despite Eileen’s daily stomach discomfort and my – well, I don’t know what exactly I have – we’re doing just fine. We’ll be going to the Galapagos on Friday with the siblings; it’s a five day/four night trip. So we’ll be in the Galapagos for Easter.

Yesterday, I took it pretty easy. I finished Kavalier and Clay, which is probably on the top ten list for “best books I’ve read.” I also started on my new book, Oracle Night by Paul Auster. And between reading sessions, I wasted a lot of time playing Fable, a video game with very sparse “save” points, so when your character dies, you have to repeat 20 – 30 minutes of gameplay. I was just about to punch the concrete wall and then the hail started. It was really noisy.

I looked at it in the same way I was looking at the day overall; on the one hand, it brought with it some hope – hope in that it reminded us of home in its snow-like appearance, hope that maybe no one would show up to my night class because of it, hope that maybe Quito would look snow-covered – but on the other hand, it brought with it some despair. I would have to get to class in spite of the flooding, icy streets. And since it is March, back home snow is not quite the source of joy it was in December. In fact, it kinda sucks. Amen?