Dateline Brac: Season Change

The Yugo is blowing - that hot, dry wind from Africa that - locals claim
- drives people insane. And yet it rains. Two days and two nights so
far. Still I manage a Solstice swim, near Murvica, picking grapes. The
water was cold and clarifying. We went a day early to pick our grapes,
rightly afraid of the rain that might ruin them. Now neighbors huddle
under an almond tree, under umbrellas, forlornly watching the rain on
their fruit. We bottle up last year's wine to make room for the new. I
drink some on the stone terrace watching clouds cover Hvar across the
channel, the white crashing breakers last to disappear. Later I drive
the 4x4 home over rain-channeled muddy roads dropping sheerly to the
sea, while Ivo sits in the back, enjoying his smokes.