This is the fifth straight morning that I’ve awakened to the sound of rain and tires hissing on wet pavement out on the Parkway. It’s the remnants of some vast hurricane that slaughtered the Caribbean and tore up the Southeast. Best wishes to everyone in its wake. What a nightmare! For those of us here in the Northeast? Well it’s just wet. And for me it’s even welcome because that’s just who I am. I’m a gloomy fuck and I welcome autumn darkness like the return of an old friend. Or how I presume welcoming an old friend may be. The way it seems in the movies. I’ve not had much experience with that. The past has largely remained the past, and much of that is my own doing but I’m only just realizing how long I remained in flight from it. I may still be running but if I am, I’m pretty certain that I’ve slowed down. The slowing is purposeful too. It’s not just that I’ve grown old, though that has surely been a part of it. So I’m no longer really running from the past but I’m still walking at a good pace. I’m not afraid of it anymore. It’s more a question of wanting to make sure I don’t revisit it by accident.

Get the picture?

But gloom like this needs a soundtrack, and it looks like I found it. This was just posted up on Youtube yesterday and mine is the 43rd view. It’s brand fucking new, and it suits five days of cold rain. It is just right. Appropriately titled too, For Those Who Stayed. I did not stay. No, I really did not stay.

Five days of cold rain.