Source: WKRN Weather app
The forecast this morning said it would be foggy and I thought, of course it will. Somehow I’d completely lost track of what day it was until this morning when I remembered I’d have to drive to work for the first time in two weeks, and even after showering, getting dressed, and having some coffee, I felt hazy. Outside looked hazy too. Heavy rains overnight had chilled the air but left it humid. Still when I stepped out and looked up there was a clear half moon almost directly overhead.
By the time I set off for work any fog had burned away, and while I was glad I didn’t have to worry about it obscuring the view I wished there were some somewhere. I like fog. It’s comforting the way it’s there but not there, a cloud close up. It seems so tangible but as you approach it disappears. I remember once when my family went on a long road trip to Maine and we drove through thick fog, slowly, seeing only the lights of other cars as they passed us.
I also remember when we’d just moved to a new house and one summer afternoon, after a thunderstorm, fog closed in over the whole neighborhood. My new friend Tony, who lived at the bottom of the hill, came up to my house and we played in my driveway. Because the new house was on a hill it had a long view and I could see miles away where cranes were putting up buildings, a whole new development. They were barely visible through the fog, and somehow, though it seems impossible now, I thought I could hear the sounds of machinery, of gears grinding. Tony said, “A cloud fell. They’re trying to put it back up.”
Maybe he was kidding, or maybe that’s what he really thought. I don’t know. I don’t even really care. I still like that idea that fog is just a fallen cloud, that it’s a way we can touch the sky.
That’s pretty deep thinking for a little kid!
It does seem pretty deep and I’m not sure whether it’s what I thought at the time or whether I’m projecting something backward onto my childhood self.
It’s been foggy here lately, Chris, and I’ll never see fog the same way after reading this wonderful post.
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Sometimes it’s the fog that allows us to see most clearly.
Chris, This reminds me of years ago when we were vacationing in California. Wherever we were staying (somewhere in the vicinity of the Hearst Castle), the fog would roll in from the ocean in the evening. We actually got to see it do this once, and it was awe-inspiring and a little scary! Your story was lovely! Mona
Mona,
It’s probably just as well that you didn’t watch John Carpenter’s “The Fog” while you were there. Or maybe you did. It would have been a hoot. But it would be amazing to see that fog come in over the California coast. Another experience with fog was when I was a kid and we went to Maine. The fog over the coast there was probably similar to California, and it was eerie and wonderful to hear foghorns.