my blue room

Sunday morning usually means french toast - something better suited to eating at the dining room table than in bed or on the couch in my enclosed front porch. Since I moved in last year, I've told everyone that the porch is my favorite room in the house. Previously it was a seafoam green color that I painted slightly greyish blue to better match the wood trim and added a couch that was given to me by a friend and ex-coworker who moved to California. In the middle of the wall facing the street is a large, square picture frame window, with two smaller double-hung windows on either side. The screens of the smaller windows are almost always open, making the porch sort of half-way between being inside and outside. One of my favorite times to loiter is during a storm, where you can feel immersed in the sounds of the rain and thunder. Now that the weather has warmed, I like to relax on the porch after work; having dinner, reading, or sometimes playing a mandolin that I bought for the exact purpose of dicking around with to pass the time.

When my breakfast was finished, I migrated to the sunny warmth of the porch. I felt the heat on my chest as I resumed my reading, but after five minutes or so, a shadow covered the pages and I looked up to see a band of clouds rolling through the sky. They were moving fast, in four or five rows, each at a slightly different pace. For several minutes I just stared as they raced across the sky. I found comfort in being absorbed in something so simple, natural and wonderous. Soon the sun was out again, returning the heat with it. The next time a line of clouds came across the sky I didn't look up from my book, but instead noticed the immediate drop in temperature. Mixing with the smell of the dewey grass from last night's thunderstorm, for a moment it felt like early Autumn. I reminded myself that it was still only Spring, and even farther from the end of Summer.