in november it rains

"It November it rains. Not that it doesn't rain at other times of the year, but there is something relentless, unforgiving and chilling about the rain in November."

- The Twelve Month Gardener: A West Coast Guide

the calender page from nikki mcclure is also appropriate for vancouver in november. the message "survive" helps me remember that winter will turn into spring eventually, if we just keep plugging through it.

actually it hasn't been pouring down in that relentless way i remember from past years - we've had quite a few sunny days recently, and cold crisp air in the top of 7 and 8 degrees style, which is easier to dress for and exist in than the soggy mid-teen temperatures.

regardless, i've had a series of exciting winterish respiratory illnesses, packing the Cold of Death, asthma and strep throat into the last month and a half. i'm pretty much better now, and only occasionally cough like someone who's been chain smoking for ten years. hoping to get back on my bike again - i haven't done a critical mass in my birthday tutu yet, and that's a problem!

end of semester is fast approaching, with final assignments and non-denominational holiday parties piling up. i've picked up some tutoring work, which is good for the budget and also good for the brain, and nicely distracting from my own work. maybe i will be able to afford a haircut. . . i saw my hairdresser at a coffeeshop the other day and showed him the collected volume of fray i was reading, and told him how inspired i always was by mel's hair and how i couldn't afford to go see him even though i really wanted to, and it was all just a bit embarrassing and would be better handled by going there and making serious friends with the scissors. . .