Wednesday, December 16th, 2020

I head to work later than usual today. I eat breakfast while I’m on the phone doing tech support for my family. I can hear it raining, almost as hard as it did a few weeks ago when a full year’s worth fell in a single day. The news online tells me that somewhere in my city, people have had to be rescued from a flood. This all adds up to a perfect storm of excuses for procrastinating. When I finally get outside, it’s not as bad as I’d feared. There’s heavy rain, as i expected, but I have my good hooded rain jacket and a baseball cap. The top half of me, at least, remains dry. I have to dodge a minefield of snails on the pedestrian street. The sidewalks are littered with fallen citrus. I kick them out of my way. I have to take two detours, on streets that are flooded where I usually cross them. By the time I get to the office, my shoes and jeans are soaked. I take off my shoes and put them under my desk, next to the blue balloon that drifted into my cube several weeks ago. I don’t take off my jeans. There’s probably a company policy against that. The rain continues all day. It lets up somewhat during the afternoon prayers. One of the guests opens a window onto the atrium. It helps to keep the hallway from getting too stuffy. The prayers are a little longer than usual. Today is both Chanukah and the night of the new moon. Just after sunset, we light the candles again. The bosses, once again, hand out cookies. I finish my work and head home a while later. It’s still raining. I don’t mind, but I'm glad to get home and finally change out of my jeans.