The sky is overcast this morning, as it has been all week, and on the way up the coast to work I listened to the new mix CD Al sent me, which opens with Loudon Wainwright III performing a couple of songs live in the studio at KXCI in Tucson. Loudon lives just south of here, in the Valley, and had written a song about the rains that swamped us back in January. It opens, "When it's grey in LA, I sure like it that way, cause there's way too much sunshine 'round here." Simple, neat and unpretentious, the song mirrored my feelings as I looked at the clouds over the ocean and recognized that too much blue sky leads to boredom.

I'm having trouble writing, and I envied his facility with language, his ability to articulate obscure feelings.

When I feel blocked in my writing, I get the creeping horrors that my inability to write is a result of having nothing worth saying. I was reminded, listening to Loudon, that sometimes things look better on a rainy day, that shadows add depth to things that otherwise would appear flat and featureless.