4 day
forecast, Ireland: the fine weather has gone to our heads. Every dish tastes
like bar-b-q. Bags of charcoal are scarce. Sunscreen has replaced Deep Heat on
the shopping list. Beachwear is de rigeur in villages from Dunmewrong to
Ballyfanny. At Dublin Airport's departure lounge, grieving families weep, not
at the bitter sendoff of a loved one, but for the package holiday they
foolishly booked one dark morning in February. When, if ever, wil we get back
to normal, to life beneath Tupperware skies, to the comfortable refrain
complaining about the weather? We don't have the vocabulary for this kind of
prolonged meteorological fineness. We don't know ourselves.
