“I’m not supposed to be here today.”

The Movie: Clerks., 1994 (Kevin Smith, screenwriter and director)
Who says it: Brian O’Halloran as Dante Hicks, a convenience store clerk
The context: Dante has things to do: a wake to attend, a girlfriend to dump, an ex-girlfriend to win back before she gets married, a hockey game to play. Instead, he has to fill in at the convenience store. He says this throughout the movie.
How to use it: When you’re working outside your usual hours.

I saw this movie with my oldest friend, Adrienne, when we were on vacation in Charleston, S.C. I don't remember whether I liked it then or not; it's grown on me over time, though, and I think Kevin Smith's movies always improve with multiple viewings. (I haven't seen Jersey Girl, so that might be an exception.)

The sign in front of the XPress Stop gas station in Farmingdale says, "Think Spring -- It Could Happen." I don't want to sound like a whiner, so I'll just reprint this from the morning paper:

It rained 16 days in April and, so far, 16 of 23 days this month, according to the National Weather Service in Gray.

Only two days have seen above-normal temperatures, putting May on track to be among the coldest on record. Temperatures have been at or below normal for 26 of the past 29 days.

And it's supposed to keep raining until June 1.

On the way to Augusta for dinner last night, I had a weird thought: there's a finite amount of water in the world, right? The planet's a closed system. We can make water in a laboratory, but it evaporates into the atmosphere and becomes part of the water cycle. If that's true, then all this rain means either 1) the polar ice caps are melting awfully fast, and that water has to go somewhere; or 2) some other place in the world is suffering a killing drought. Probably both.

Either way, it freaks me out a little, the same way I felt when I drove from Albuquerque to Pagosa Springs and realized that it wasn't fog on the road, I was driving through a cloud atop a mountain ridge. Nature gets a little too real for me sometimes.

On a related note, I want to extend my sympathy to all of Maine's road crews, who officially have the worst jobs in the state this week. Every road in Maine is currently under repair, and they don't stop for the rain. Those guys are heroes. I hope they're getting hazard pay.