Entry 306; Day 183
Snow in the summer is almost becoming an annual tradition in the City. I can't remember when, exactly, it's snowed before, but I know it's been well into summer that we've had ice and snow. And here it is again, and nearly at Midsummer too, which adds to the irony. It's snowed the last two summers that I've been here, I know that, and it's usually no small storm either.
Although, I do like it, in the strange way. It reminds me of the winter, when the opera house is dim even at noon and the snow shadows all the windows. It's quiet and feels all day like evening. The first time I woke to it, it was positively astonishing. I thought I'd wandered somewhere else, somewhere out of the City--perhaps even home--but it was only the City itself playing tricks again. And going out in it is a welcome change from summer's heat. I found my winter coat easily enough--it almost doesn't do to put things away for the summer--and went walking, of course. I'm perhaps surprised that no one tried to take off my hat with a snowball. The City is just so instantly transformed. Does this count as a curse yet or not? I can't be certain. If it turns colder and harsher, I suppose we'll call it a curse. People are acting more like it's a celebration--those who aren't ill, that is.
The light stays in the sky as late as it would if the weather were hot, which makes the whole snowy scene somewhat eerie. The angles of the light are like a summer evening, and yet it looks like the dead of winter. It's disconcerting. The seasons are inverted. Still, the City looks like a wonder, and Xanadu especially. Some of the flowers seem preserved in glass the way the ice has coated them. Trees are in full leaf, but covered in snow--and some of those branches are breaking under the weight of it. And every last bloom on the cherry tree seems to have been crystalised. I wonder how many more branches will break and how many blooms will whither before the heat of summer returns. And when all this snow does melt, what a flood we'll have to endure--and ice sliding from the roofs again.
If one was going to enjoy this sudden change in the weather, today was the day to do it. I think, though, given the pattern that summer snowstorms have taken here before, it's only going to get worse tonight. I think it's already started too, the way the wind is blowing now. And the snow is coming harder too. It's bound to get worse overnight.
If that smoke didn't kill all the insects in the City, certainly this cold will. I'm certain now that that fog was an insecticide, and not meant for us. We found that much out in our tests, but nothing more, and little wonder of that-- I have to wonder if there isn't something going on which the 'deities' are trying to control, but of which we're not yet aware.
The play's tomorrow as well. Will the show go on? Or shall we all wait to see what the weather holds for tomorrow? I have no great hope that it will thaw by tomorrow, but we'll see. The City has done stranger things before. Still, performing 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' in the middle of a snowstorm seems both ridiculous and hilarious.
For now, I'll keep looking at my lines and making hot tea here in the kitchen. Anyone from the opera house coming in from the cold can take some hot water if they want it. And we'll see what the weather does tomorrow.
~C.
[ooc: =_=;; We just about hit 100 degrees F in my part of the world today... This was the hardest post to write possibly ever.]
Although, I do like it, in the strange way. It reminds me of the winter, when the opera house is dim even at noon and the snow shadows all the windows. It's quiet and feels all day like evening. The first time I woke to it, it was positively astonishing. I thought I'd wandered somewhere else, somewhere out of the City--perhaps even home--but it was only the City itself playing tricks again. And going out in it is a welcome change from summer's heat. I found my winter coat easily enough--it almost doesn't do to put things away for the summer--and went walking, of course. I'm perhaps surprised that no one tried to take off my hat with a snowball. The City is just so instantly transformed. Does this count as a curse yet or not? I can't be certain. If it turns colder and harsher, I suppose we'll call it a curse. People are acting more like it's a celebration--those who aren't ill, that is.
The light stays in the sky as late as it would if the weather were hot, which makes the whole snowy scene somewhat eerie. The angles of the light are like a summer evening, and yet it looks like the dead of winter. It's disconcerting. The seasons are inverted. Still, the City looks like a wonder, and Xanadu especially. Some of the flowers seem preserved in glass the way the ice has coated them. Trees are in full leaf, but covered in snow--and some of those branches are breaking under the weight of it. And every last bloom on the cherry tree seems to have been crystalised. I wonder how many more branches will break and how many blooms will whither before the heat of summer returns. And when all this snow does melt, what a flood we'll have to endure--and ice sliding from the roofs again.
If one was going to enjoy this sudden change in the weather, today was the day to do it. I think, though, given the pattern that summer snowstorms have taken here before, it's only going to get worse tonight. I think it's already started too, the way the wind is blowing now. And the snow is coming harder too. It's bound to get worse overnight.
If that smoke didn't kill all the insects in the City, certainly this cold will. I'm certain now that that fog was an insecticide, and not meant for us. We found that much out in our tests, but nothing more, and little wonder of that-- I have to wonder if there isn't something going on which the 'deities' are trying to control, but of which we're not yet aware.
The play's tomorrow as well. Will the show go on? Or shall we all wait to see what the weather holds for tomorrow? I have no great hope that it will thaw by tomorrow, but we'll see. The City has done stranger things before. Still, performing 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' in the middle of a snowstorm seems both ridiculous and hilarious.
For now, I'll keep looking at my lines and making hot tea here in the kitchen. Anyone from the opera house coming in from the cold can take some hot water if they want it. And we'll see what the weather does tomorrow.
~C.
[ooc: =_=;; We just about hit 100 degrees F in my part of the world today... This was the hardest post to write possibly ever.]