The Rain, the Park and Other Things:

In 1967 a “psychedelic” pop song from the musical Hair, later recorded by the Cowsills hit the charts. In my rebellious rock and roll youth the song was too poppy for me. The lyrics stuck in my head anyway.

“I saw her sitting in the rain
Raindrops falling on her hair
She didn’t seem to care”

In 1989 I moved to Portland Oregon to go to chiropractic college. I was not one to appreciate inclement weather as it got in the way of playing volleyball outdoors. People queried as to why I would move to Portland with its reputation for being very rainy.  I moved there because I liked the city better than alternative chiropractic college cities. I was lucky in that the entire 4 years I spent in Portland was a drought. In Portland that still often meant rain, but generally light misty rain. I figured it would not matter as most of my time would be spent indoors, either in class or studying.

I owned a big wool Norwegian looking sweater and a wool stocking cap. They were totally adequate for walking in all but the heaviest downpours. Soon I began to look forward to those misty days and nights when I could don my wool and refresh inside and out by walking in the rain. Sometimes things stick in the brain, almost as though to spite a firmly held opinion. Walking in the rain the Cowsills often ran an endless tape loop in my brain and often I sang along. It was an anomalous series of events, kind of like the one time when feeling sorry for myself I cried listening to a Carpenter’s song on the radio.

Yesterday, no wool sweater or stocking cap, walking in the misty rain brought back memories of rain, the Cowsills and Portland. The memories are light and airy, unlike so many Portland memories of time spent feeling buried by seemingly impossible amounts of class and study time. The brain, memories and life can be amazing. The good memories of from that period, like walking in the rain, are stronger than the dark ones.

I was a bit disappointed this morning, no mist. A few more hours and it should return. This morning, we went for coffee by the Cathedral and for the first time the gates to the garden were open. I had posted a picture previously of a photo taken through the gate. Today I am improving, I hope, on that. I also got to have a peek inside the small chapel, not the main cathedral. Pictures below, the first is the area that was shown earlier with a photo through the fence.

I must go now as I need to do a bit of research on rooms for the next leg of the trip.