Weather commentary

I still plan to finish going through the rest of our last R&R in China (of course, at this rate we'll be going on our next one before I finish telling you about our last one!), but don't have time this morning to actually sit down and go through the guide book to remember all of the places in Hong Kong that we really loved. The one observation I wanted to make is how much of a shock the difference between a dry season and a wet season can be in a place like this. Before a couple of weeks ago, it hadn't rained since about May, and all of a sudden now it's 45 degrees and raining every third day or so. Quite an adjustment from walking out the door every day knowing that the only question was whether it was going to be 80 or 100 that day to all of a sudden have to remember things like umbrellas and jackets and other logistical concerns!

I remember from when we lived in Turkey that the change was pretty sudden and permanent, but years of living in the DC area where every season begins with several weeks of one step forward and two steps back to sort of ease one into the change. I went on TDY two weeks ago and brought only thin long-sleeve shirts, and by the time I was sitting on the (not very insulated) plane coming back, I was cursing myself for not remembering that the temperatures would drop an average of 15 degrees pretty much overnight. So now I'm digging out our sweaters and jackets and trying to remember where the heck we put our rain gear six months ago when we last needed it...