I don't like it when people complain about the weather. There's nothing we can do to control it, unless you count slowly and systematically destroying the atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels for industrial purposes to fundamentally change the atmosphere and, thus, weather patterns. Of course, I occassionally do a little complaining, but that has more to do with my Italian upbringing, where complaining is a way of life (I like to call it 'critical observation'), not necessarily a reflection of how annoying something actually is.
But then, I saw
this post over at
kch's place. And I got really annoyed. Or sad. Or mad. Not with kch, but with this crazy Midwest weather.
Wanna know why? Here's why: On the same day kari and co up in Portland are enjoying 'fake-spring,' the weather here in the middle is just messing with us. Take, for instance, yesterday:
The day starts out real nice, so you decide you'll spend some time outside. It's 65 degrees out and you go for a walk in the park with short sleeves on. All the snow is melting and you think you actually might see some green grass. If you imagine hard enough, you can even imagine leaves and green buds on those gray, sad trees. A couple hours later, when you get home, the temp drops 20 degrees in an hour and it starts sleeting outside. Then the thunder and lightning start. During a sleet storm. In March. Then, it drops another 20 degrees when the sun goes down. The snow starts coming down like you live on Hoth. By the time you go to bed, all that kind-of-green grass that was poking through the melted snow- remember that? - well, it's gone. It's covered in 4 inches of snow. 4 INCHES OF SNOW in, like, 30 minutes. When you wake up, the car is covered in half an inch of ice, with an additional 6 inches of light, dusty snow - you know the consistency, the one where when you brush it, it just goes straight up in the air and then down the neck of your jacket or back on the car.
Yes, I grew up in New England, where the weather swings are just as monumental. And I went to school in a place that was so cold that the
6th Great Lake would freeze over. But I moved to the NW, where the
Goldilocks weather turned me into a giant weather-wuss. You could go hiking in January. And play Ultimate Frisbee year round. And the rhododendrons and dogwoods are probably already in bloom. And you could grow rosemary year round without having to worry abou tit freezing to death.
And now, I have to deal with this Midwest weather. The wind whips through constantly, creating snow drifts so high I'm worried Kimberly might disappear. We haven't been snow-free since Thanksgiving, which, let me remind you, was in NOVEMBER.
Hopefully, once this cold streak ends - which, I hope might happen by June - we'll get 2 or 3 months of nice weather before the heat and 90% humidity kick in. Meanwhile, in the Northwest, they'll be enjoying 85 dry degrees, blue skies, and not a vision of rain for 3 solid months.
Yes, I'm going stir-crazy.
