bring an umbrella.

So while Amanda and I have just surfaced for air after seeing 18 performances in one week, she has gone off on a three day work retreat in the wildness. That leaves me to fret about things far beyond my control. Like the weather.

Months ago, October 6th seemed like an arbitrary choice. We both enjoy the fall and wanted to have an autumn wedding. It couldn't conflict with TBA or run up too close to shows at my gallery. Other than that, we both are fond of October and felt that early in the month offered the best chance for nice weather. And that was the last it crossed our minds.

An evening wedding in the fall? Sure, that makes a lot of sense. Revisiting the rooftop terrace for the first time the other evening, we both said the same thing. "Damn, it's windy up here." Suddenly, our summer-weight attire that we bough back in April seems woefully light for the bracing chill of an autumn night. At least we'll be in front of the fireplace. It is all of you poor saps that will be huddled together for warmth. Maybe this way it will seem like the crowded seating arrangement was intentional.

But the other factor that we had failed to consider was light. Thanks to a little phenomenon called axial tilt, the sun doesn't always set at the same time year round. Most people know this, but for some reason, we chose to schedule our ceremony for 6:30. Thankfully, when I looked into it for the first time last night, I found out that sunset on the 6th shouldn't occur until around 6:41. And get this, we'll have "civilian twilight" for another 18 minutes or so! We don't even need candles because the sun will do the mood-lighting for us.

According to the National Weather Service, we have a 35.6% historic chance of rain and, thankfully, a 0% chance of snow. The average precipitation for October 6 is .10", while the most we ever got was 1.24" in 1981. The hottest it's been was a balmy 89 in 1952, but it was once only 37 degrees in 1974. Luckily, the temperature averages 47-68 degrees. I'd say that's pretty comfortable. But should it matter that back in 1962, the weekend of our wedding brought in one of the worst tsunamis to ever strike the Pacific Northwest?

I've become a weather fanatic - checking and cross-referencing multiple sources to find the report that I want to believe. However, all of the meteorologists will tell you that beyond a few days in advance, forecasting is little more than guesswork. This just means that I'll have to start putting more stock in predictions the closer it gets. In the meantime, I was considering getting a subscription to a Farmer's Almanac to access their "80% accurate" long-range forecasts, but when I went to one of their websites, they predicted the 4th-7th as being "very unsettled" and their front page advertised a "Worst Wedding Weather Contest." Maybe I should just invest in a pig spleen. And you should invest in some blankets and ponchos.

At least I haven't begun worrying about the weather for our honeymoon. Why did I insist on Montreal over Hawaii?