That's right -- SUNGLASSES.
This morning the sun is shining through some random clouds I have to put on my sunglasses while driving to work, particularly while driving along the section of route 62 that faces east and into the sunrise. I arrive at work, park my car, and head inside.
This is the last I will see of the sky for many hours.
I realize that I have accidentally left my sunglasses on the top of my head. I usually leave them in the door or in the center console, and I am a little annoyed at myself for bringing them with me. I pop them carefully into the front pocket of my backpack and hope I remember they are there for the ride home.
At the end of the day after teaching inside the boxed-in room, I prepare to leave. I have to drive to New Hampshire this afternoon for a hair appointment. I decide I should probably fish out my sunglasses and get ready for the drive. (An aside: I arrive at work every morning when the sun is low in the eastern sky and leave when it's setting in the western sky.) I arrange the sunglasses on the top of my head, lock the door to my classroom, and get ready to zoom home and then zoom north.
Everything is fine for leaving work until I come across a window on my way out the front door. A window with a view. A window that isn't just plywood anymore. I stand there, mouth agape, and say to another teacher, "What the ... Holy fucking shit, REALLY????"
It's snowing. And it's not just snowing-snowing, it's full-on, near white-out conditions squalling.
I am going to defy Mother Nature at this point. I head outside, the sunglasses still on my head, and I'm going to clean off my car so I can get out of here. I start the car, clear everything off with a large brush, and start driving. The snow is starting to accumulate.
The minute I pull into my driveway eight miles from the starting point, the sun comes out. Mother Nature is defying me; I can feel it deep into my core. Just as quickly as the storm starts, it stops again. When I go out to my car later to drive in the last rays of sunshine to my appointment in New Hampshire, I notice there is still water on the lenses of my sunglasses from the snow melting that landed on them earlier.
I quickly wipe the lenses off and continue driving. You see, I can be like Mother Nature, too. I can stick my proverbial middle finger up at the world just as easily. It remains sunny for my entire drive north, dry for my entire time at the salon, and clear for the whole way home.
I possess Winter Defiance right now. It's not neat, and it's not pretty, but it's damn addicting.
