Across the oily river where the road had been

The rain came down yesterday.

Driving to uni was fun, though a little scary. I enjoy driving in the rain – windscreen wipers provide soothing rhythms, back and forth, back and forth, sometimes in time to the radio’s artificial beats. I can feel the tyres slipping to and fro on the oil-slicked road, and there’s puddles lying just out of reach. Street lights and headlamps cast hot argent pools across footpaths and grass which sparkles with tiny pinpricks of fire. As the hidden sun sets, I notice how green the grass is.

The dash from the Macquarie Centre to campus is made somehow longer by the pounding rain, and by the time I reach the pedestrian crossing which bridges the shops to the university, I am already soaking. A river of umbrellas, bristling with spikes which threaten to take an eye out, makes its way in exile towards the bus stands. I had forgotten my umbrella. I half-run, half-walk against the horizontal rain, but I stop at the bridge over the dry creek bed when I notice, in the half-light, that it’s no longer a dry creek bed. The river runs again, with actual water, churning from the northern end of the campus towards the lake. It’s worth getting wet to watch it for a while. Then, shaking my head dog-like, I run for the labs.

In other news, I have discovered Skype, a free Internet telephony client that lets me call other Skype users from my computer, for nix! If you are in contact with me by phone (or want to be), I highly recommend you save yourself the expensive phone calls and download this nifty piece of software (requires a microphone).