Weather!
Everybody in California loves to tell you how the weather is. No matter when you call them—sizzling summer or frigid winter—they’ll always say, without even being asked, “Here it’s just a wonderful day.” The weather report. It’s the first thing they say.
Because my family lives in California and my sons are going to college in California I am all too used to these calls. I’ve taken to giving them a pre-emptive strike: “It’s snowing here in New York,” I’ll say, “and I think it looks just beautiful.”
It doesn’t always work. First of all, they find it hard to believe that you really appreciate the eight inches of snow that just got dumped on you and the way it’s snarling up the traffic they can see on the Internet or the news. In fact, they’ve been watching—gleefully— the pattern of the terrible storm that’s headed your way and tell you mournfully what it’ll do.
Even my younger son, Timothy, who’s only had six months of California weather at the college he attends, has taken to the familiar pattern.
“Dad,” he said on the phone the other night, “it was a beautiful day today.”
“There’s a snow storm headed here,” I replied.
“We played Frisbee on the lawn and I went running later.”
“Some places are supposed to get a foot of snow.”
“People were even swimming in the pool.”
“Okay Tim,” I reminded him of what he was really missing. “Tomorrow you’ll have classes like usual, right?”
“Sure,” he said.
“If you lived here, tomorrow all the classes would be cancelled. Tomorrow will be a snow day.”
There are advantages to a good blizzard. And I think it looks just as beautiful as the sun shining on a green lawn with kids playing Frisbee.
Well, almost. But you’ve got to be thankful for something!
Rick Hamlin is the executive editor at GUIDEPOSTS.
