Out of the Frying Pan: a Meteorological Rant
I'm fairly stubborn and opinionated, so it is a pretty notable and unusual event to come across an opinion topic for which I don't know my own best answer. Increasingly of late, one such question is "what is your favorite season?" I've gone through quite a change over time, with my opinion going through at least three shifts. In my youngest years, the answer was the summer, due solely to my dislike for school (I was socially... um... "awkward"... and enjoyed the option of isolation that summer offered)... by high school, it had shifted to the fall, by virtue of the field music seasons placing my favorite hobbies there (drum corps and marching bands)... after high school, my opinion really finally shifts to the weather I like best, the winter (I love the cold and absolutely can't abide heat)... for a time at the beginning of my teaching career, I came full circle to enjoying the summer again, by virtue of the vacation time.
Today, though, I'm somewhat torn - I still excitedly anticipate the summer and the large body of free time it brings, but my tolerance for heat continues to become even less and less, making it difficult to enjoy the free time. I'm not sure why that tolerance has continued to decrease so. If I had to guess, I'd say it's partly due to becoming "spoiled" by my own technology (finally owning a home these past few years has, at last, allowed me greater control over the climate of my living surroundings) and perhaps partly due to diabetes II (I noted a few seemingly consistent and permanent little changes after initial onset a year ago, one of which was an even greater sensitivity to the heat). Whatever the reason, though, I just can't hack the heat.
And I don't know that I'm all that alone. Already only in early June my students are all freely grousing as loud as I about the rising temperatures, and I often hear colleagues and peers saying the same. So why, then, does the media - the television and the radio - insist on taunting me so?!? What do I hear every morning on the radio? Some bouncy fool jauntily quipping, "Mmmmm! It's gonna be one nice day out there today, with a high in the lower 90s... just beautiful!" Yeah, bozo, just beautiful for YOU, because you get to sit all day in an air conditioned booth getting paid to listen to music and heckle the rest of us that have to actually walk around outside in that disgusting atmospheric soup!
Okay, okay, fine... different strokes for different folks. Well, I put up with your icky weather, and then that's not enough - you need to spoil my favorite weather types by lamenting them and belaboring you bellyaching!
I see a day with beautiful, clear blue skies dotted with puffy wisps of bleach white clouds floating lazily on a gentle but firm breeze that sweeps across the skin and whistles softly through the foliage, and cools you down enouch to enjoy the embrace of the sun like a warm hug amidst the flowing coolness.
... but the fool on the radio assures us, "Hang in there! W.U.S.S. meteorologist Harry Moldblossom says we can expect the weather to improve steadily all this week, to cut through the chill in the upper 70s and set up a beautiful 90 degree weekend."
I see a cool, refreshing shower relieving the parched, cracked earth, hissing a soft, relaxing lull of falling water, laying down the audial baseline over which the skies occasionally punctuate the show with a dynamic flash, the natural fireworks presenting the awesome power of nature in a demonstration for our entertainment.
... but the fool on the radio singlemindedly laments, "unfortunately, we can expect the continued showers to remain for much of the weekend, with only the occasional break in the clouds to provide any relief. Oh, well, I guess our plants need the moisture." Gee, thanks for that little concession.
One of my very favorite memories from early youth is sitting in front of the large living room window (a large one, covering more than half that wall) with the air conditioner on in mid-summer, enjoying the carefully regulated temperature inside and rocking in a chair with my mother eating half a canteloupe, watching outside as the rain poured down on the yard and street beyond, and the sky lit up with flashes of lightning.
Or lying outside my high school on a patch of grass in the back long after everyone else has left, waiting for a late ride but not minding the wait, looking up to the edge of the sky where the tops of the trees wave and flow in the currents on the blue backdrop of the sky beyond, feeling the mild coolness of the gentle breeze relieving the surface of my skin from the heat of the sun.
Both of those, to say nothing of the scores of memories of the electric buzz within the crisp chill of an October night as the scent of hot dogs wafts through a football stadium, or the soft, almost imperceptible crackle of snow drifting weightlessly to the ground and accumulating in the still frozen landscape of an early frost in December.
Sure, I have happy memories in the heat too... many related to special vacations with treasured family and friends... but in most cases, they hare happy memories *in spite of* the weather. Ah, well... different strokes for different folks... but please, do leave me my moments too!
Today, though, I'm somewhat torn - I still excitedly anticipate the summer and the large body of free time it brings, but my tolerance for heat continues to become even less and less, making it difficult to enjoy the free time. I'm not sure why that tolerance has continued to decrease so. If I had to guess, I'd say it's partly due to becoming "spoiled" by my own technology (finally owning a home these past few years has, at last, allowed me greater control over the climate of my living surroundings) and perhaps partly due to diabetes II (I noted a few seemingly consistent and permanent little changes after initial onset a year ago, one of which was an even greater sensitivity to the heat). Whatever the reason, though, I just can't hack the heat.
And I don't know that I'm all that alone. Already only in early June my students are all freely grousing as loud as I about the rising temperatures, and I often hear colleagues and peers saying the same. So why, then, does the media - the television and the radio - insist on taunting me so?!? What do I hear every morning on the radio? Some bouncy fool jauntily quipping, "Mmmmm! It's gonna be one nice day out there today, with a high in the lower 90s... just beautiful!" Yeah, bozo, just beautiful for YOU, because you get to sit all day in an air conditioned booth getting paid to listen to music and heckle the rest of us that have to actually walk around outside in that disgusting atmospheric soup!
Okay, okay, fine... different strokes for different folks. Well, I put up with your icky weather, and then that's not enough - you need to spoil my favorite weather types by lamenting them and belaboring you bellyaching!
I see a day with beautiful, clear blue skies dotted with puffy wisps of bleach white clouds floating lazily on a gentle but firm breeze that sweeps across the skin and whistles softly through the foliage, and cools you down enouch to enjoy the embrace of the sun like a warm hug amidst the flowing coolness.
... but the fool on the radio assures us, "Hang in there! W.U.S.S. meteorologist Harry Moldblossom says we can expect the weather to improve steadily all this week, to cut through the chill in the upper 70s and set up a beautiful 90 degree weekend."
I see a cool, refreshing shower relieving the parched, cracked earth, hissing a soft, relaxing lull of falling water, laying down the audial baseline over which the skies occasionally punctuate the show with a dynamic flash, the natural fireworks presenting the awesome power of nature in a demonstration for our entertainment.
... but the fool on the radio singlemindedly laments, "unfortunately, we can expect the continued showers to remain for much of the weekend, with only the occasional break in the clouds to provide any relief. Oh, well, I guess our plants need the moisture." Gee, thanks for that little concession.
One of my very favorite memories from early youth is sitting in front of the large living room window (a large one, covering more than half that wall) with the air conditioner on in mid-summer, enjoying the carefully regulated temperature inside and rocking in a chair with my mother eating half a canteloupe, watching outside as the rain poured down on the yard and street beyond, and the sky lit up with flashes of lightning.
Or lying outside my high school on a patch of grass in the back long after everyone else has left, waiting for a late ride but not minding the wait, looking up to the edge of the sky where the tops of the trees wave and flow in the currents on the blue backdrop of the sky beyond, feeling the mild coolness of the gentle breeze relieving the surface of my skin from the heat of the sun.
Both of those, to say nothing of the scores of memories of the electric buzz within the crisp chill of an October night as the scent of hot dogs wafts through a football stadium, or the soft, almost imperceptible crackle of snow drifting weightlessly to the ground and accumulating in the still frozen landscape of an early frost in December.
Sure, I have happy memories in the heat too... many related to special vacations with treasured family and friends... but in most cases, they hare happy memories *in spite of* the weather. Ah, well... different strokes for different folks... but please, do leave me my moments too!
posted by Greg J. Hipius | 9:13 AM
2 Comments:
i agree with you completely on the heat issue. i hate it. im more torn between spring and fall however, season-wise. i love the spring's weather; its the perfect temperature and i absolutely love the rain. its one of my favorite things in the whole world. and o love the smell of the rain the morning after. however the fall has the same temperature, but i like the colors better and my main thing about the fall is the fact that its a transition from shortsleeves and shorts back to long-sleeves and pants. i dont like shorts or shortsleeved shrits terribly much [you'll almost never see me wear a single shortsleeved shirt] and i absolutely love long sleeves. spring has the opposite transition which i dont appreciate at all. thus, i am torn. my perfect day is 68 degrees overcast with a soft breeze and intermittent showers, then ending in a thunderstorm for bedtime. 90 degree weather can suck and elf for all im concerned!
bet you never expected a message from me. :-D
~ Ben
Isn't it amazing how the weather can connect so much with how you feel and what you remember? Snowshowers and thunderstorms (see comments above) connect to myriad memories for me, and I'm absolutely certain that I pick up my mood from them... snowshowers bring me serenity and a pensive appreciation for little things, while thunderstorms bring me excitement and buzzing energy... both feelings I love, and perhaps why I love the two types of weather.
Of course, muggy 90 degree days bring the emotion of lethargy (is that an emotion?) which is probably why I agree, in Ben's words, that it can "suck an elf for all I'm concerned."
Firsts are always big too, and I act illogically like it's the first time I've EVER seen it. First big thunderstorm of the spring... first big crisp temperature dip in the fall... and the king of all, the first snowfall! Just by mentioning it I'm already excited. Heh... :)
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