K and I took the double out on the lake this morning for a brief row. It was so good to be back on what passes for water around here. It's far from perfect, but it will have to do.
When it gets down to it, I love the water. Not that stuff in a swimming pool or hot tub, no, but massive, still lakes and oceans or roaring rivers. Seeing the water in Seattle this summer reminded me of my perpetual thirst but did not slake it. As I sit here in the land of eternal sunshine and blast-furnace heat, I long for dark, cloudy skies and rainstorms and a million shades of grey and blue. I want rain that soaks the ground and leaves it cold and clammy and full of moss, water that runs down in rivulets. My soul is parched.
This place can hold me captive for a while, years more, even. But stronger than any other directive, the call to return to the Northwest is still drawing me back home.