summer is over...

There is something about sitting on the couch and listing to the rain at my house in Port Alexander that is so completely relaxing that it is almost impossible to believe. The hunter green roof of the house is metal, so even the lightest rain is pretty noticeable. The last 5 days, however, have been some of the rainiest days I have been in, in a long time. Between midnight and 2pm today, we got 2 and a half inches of rain – which I believe is beyond “raining cats and dogs.” It is the type of rain that drenches you from head to two the second you step out the door.

Right now, I am sitting at the counter in my coffee shop, looking out my window at the bay and the front dock. Nobody is out fishing because the weather is terrible; I don’t mean the rain - It is blowing 30+ out there. As I sit here, Ryan is down putting another line on his boat, just to be on the safe side.

It really is the end of the summer. We were spoiled this year. We got a few weeks of beautiful weather, so when we get our normal rain, rain, and more rain back – it made it that much harder to bare. I spent an hour walking in the rain today. I went and returned books to people I borrowed them from, returned things people left at the shop; just doing things that needed to be done. I leave tomorrow or Saturday, so it seemed an appropriate day to make sure all my lose ends were tied up, but man it was wet out there. Wet to the point that North Face rain shells are no longer waterproof – they just get so saturated they eventually start letting water trough. Wet to the point where the crotch of your rain pants spring a leak and make it look like you peed your pants when you take them off.

Going back to what I said before – listening to the rain on a metal room relaxes me. It really does. It is the sound of home; the sound of security. On days like this you can just curl up in a blanket on the couch with a cup of tea and a book or the remote to the TV and not feel guilty. You can do all your inside chores and not wish that you were outside doing something else. You can bake cookies, filling your house with that perfect smell. Oh, then there is the wood stove. Something about it raining outside makes wood stoves smell even better. I love the smell of the wood burning, and on rainy days, the smell intensifies.

This particular rainy day, I haven’t been able to just sit at my house and curl up and read a book, or make cookies, or smell the wood fire. I have been at the shop and running errands in the rain and realizing my rain pants sprang a leak, but I know that come 6:30 p.m. I will be heading home to a warm house and a cup of tea with my name on it.

It is sad that summer is over and I’m leaving PA in two days. But I know that I will soon be back in Sitka; back to civilization of some sorts. Back to a world of cars, movie theaters, restaurants and grocery stores. Back to a world where I can get banana chips or egg rolls when ever I want them.

I’ll miss PA. This summer has been great. I spent two months on the beach in Port Alexander. Something I haven’t done – ever, I don’t think. It was what I wanted to do, and I did it. I opened a coffee shop, and it was successful. I read books I wanted to read (not as many as I wanted to, but a couple). I swam at the lake, jumped off the pier, swam to the red can, picked barriers, hiked to the water tower and to ships cove. I did all the things I wanted to do and more. I can’t complain about anything this summer. I made some hard decision that I will have to live with my whole life, but I know I will be fine. I will have to say goodbye to Port Alexander, though. I don’t know when I will be able to return. I have no idea where my life is going to take me from this point on. I am just going to go wherever the wind takes me – I’m going to live life spontaneously and take whatever opportunities are presented to me.

I know what ever happens, and wherever I end up, is going to be a new adventure, and I am ready for it. First, though, I just have to make it through the next seven months with out letting myself fall into too deep of a depression. It might be hard, but I will work at it. And when I’m falling to far, I will think of everyone that I was blessed enough to get to know while in school, and I will think of my beautiful Port Alexander, and I will think of what adventures my future my hold – and I know I will be ok.