Waiting for the rain is kind of like waiting for a dentist appointment. You know it's coming, you know you need it, you're just happy enough that it isn't happening until next week. You're happy to wait. It's a lot easier to jog off those December pounds in the morning if it's sunny out. And after getting dumped on last year, you deserve this.

So, soak it in. Read a book outdoors. Take a tennis lesson. Go on a long bike ride. Because winter is coming whether you want it to or not. The trees want it. The grapevines up north probably do too. Alaska's been having a miserable, blizzard-y winter thanks to us. Because it's just like in Bridge, when someone has a really great hand it usually means someone else at the table has a really shitty hand. And things like cards, and jet streams, have a way of rebalancing themselves.