Almost makes you forget February

The weather since Thursday puts me in the mood for extravagant but downhome turns of phrase, constructions like “jawdroppingly awesome” and “unmitigated radness”. Unless you’re too pathetic for me to even look at, you don’t need me to tell you about the sun stretching like a lazy cat overhead, sending temperatures into the 80s all through the weekend, because you’ve been outside enjoying it. When a network failure halted my afternoon workflow at the office yesterday, it was as if the munificent hand of fate were handing me a half-melted popsicle and a burger, holding open the door, and nudging me gently towards all the sunshine and feelgood vibes. Accordingly my friend / coworker Jordan and I cut out a little early to chase the daylight over at Banjo.

I have to interrupt myself here, as it occurs to me that I may have neglected to mention what Banjo is during my months of internet sabbatical. Banjo is the two-story paddlewheel houseboat moored in Lake Union that Kelly lives on with her boyfriend / coworker Marc. They rent it for surprisingly little money from a woman who clearly has no idea what to do with it otherwise. Banjo has a compelling feature set, including the hot tub on the bow, the lovely interior decorating, assorted smaller boats attached to Banjo itself like nursing puppies, and the rooftop deck. And it’s about as waterfront as you can get.

Lake union is finally getting to be a nice place to swim after its months of iciness, so we did some of that as the sun slowly sank. Marc let me drive one of the smaller boats on a little jaunt around the lake, and we swam out there a little. I got sunburned on my front to match the one I’d gotten Saturday on my back. We drank some cheap beer. Nothing at all remarkable happened, really, except that summer in Seattle once again tricked me into forgiving the sins of winter, days of leaning into wind-driven rain that stung through two layers of clothing. Are my expectations of my native climate so low? I suppose they are.