Oh god, I'm talking about the weather!

Well, it's a lovely sunny weekend here after a week of truly gruesome weather; dark skies and rain. The river is full of detritus from upstream where apparently there's been flooding; bits of tree, fence posts and the like. Earlier in the week I watched a football float past. I thought there must be a good story in that. Not a very good story but still.

I have a complicated relationship with the weather. People often say, "Oh the nice weather will make you feel better." when in fact it often has the opposite effect. I don't suffer too badly with the heat like lots of crips do, but some of my darkest depressions have come in the late spring or summer when everything looks beautiful and I've been holed up inside on the sofa or in bed. However, this summer I have my electric wheelchair so I can trundle down to the beach if I so chose. We have a lovely, sloping sandy beach here in Whitby although it's at the bottom of cliffs so my chair will need lots of juice to get back up the cliff paths. We also have access to a car and thus the purple moors, plus we've got two trips planned down south; one to my folks' in just over a week's time and one to Rosie and Gingernuts' wedding.

So I am actually looking forward to summer for once and the weather has cheered me up, together with a higher dose of codeine which is neither knocking me out or stuffing me up or doing any of the things I was anxious it would do. Under my new tablets Other unwanted effects it lists "a feeling of extra well-being". So I'll have to look out for that one. If anyone notices me acting too chirpy they'll better confiscate my pills and call an ambulance.

Also after a week of frustrations my writing started flowing again yesterday. I wrote some really good dialogue between two characters who previously didn't seem to be able to express themselves in anything but a stilted, tactless way. Yesterday they got talking like real people with tension and subtlety.

My only real trouble at the moment is that I can't have a bath without falling asleep. Every blooming day this week, when I've got in the bath I have promptly fallen asleep, waking up cold and sniffling and generally miserable an hour or so later. But if that's all I've got to worry about life isn't too bad.

And aah! I have a big henna stain on my arm! Yes, I have been making my hair red again. It's become a habit now. I like having red hair, but you know in the six weeks it's been red, only one person has commented on it. Only one. I know when I visit my folks they'll notice and thoroughly disapprove.