Don’t curse the clouds, unless you would rather live in a world without rain.

From Alfred’s journal

Four days of gray over the field and I had been complaining about it to anyone who would hold still, which lately means Switch. This morning the cottonwood by the ditch was green all the way up for the first time since the dry spell, and the ditch itself had water in it, moving. I used to think a clear sky was simply the better sky, that the clouds were the interruption and the blue was the thing itself. Don't curse the clouds, unless you would rather live in a world without rain. What I notice is that I only arrived at this after I was already wet and already drinking, never during the fourth gray morning, which is when it would have been of some use. Switch says he likes the rain because the hawks stay home.