Weather

I don't know why I'm writing this one. Guess for a change of pace, I'm tired and it's interesting.
I just came from "The One Minute Writer" blog--you can go check it out by clicking on the icon on the side bar--and her subject today was, "how does the weather effect your mood, or talk of an experience you've had." All of a sudden I was confronted with memories and thoughts. So, I thought, okay, let's have a fun moment. ;)

Weather, well of course as I stated on her blog, I'm a walking weather machine. I can always tell when the weather is going to change. I can tell when it is going to be acceptionally bad. My joints will scream at me, sometimes to the point where it hurts to move. Good ole' arthritis. Gotta love it. The problem is, I can tell the weather, but I'm not getting paid for it. Hee hee

Seriously though, weather often is a subject when people first meet, or something and is used as an ice-breaker. I've heard it commented many times over; why in the world do people talk about the weather? It's a natural occurance, it changes, who cares. Well, I do. If it's going to get ugly, I want to know. Sometimes it can make for an interesting subject.

Why just the other day...sorry, couldn't resist that one. I love to be goofy. It's my second nature. Some think I'm just way to strange. Oh well, that's me, take me or leave me.

I remember back as a kid my parents came racing in the door one day shouting, "Get down in the basement!" I stood there asking why. "Don't ask, just do it." Well the alarm in their voice told me to move. So I grabbed my two little sisters and down we went. I heard them running around upstairs and heard this loud noise. We had a great big upright antique piano down there that we three sat under.

Before long we were released to go upstairs. Oh my gosh! There's a big tree down right next to the house and broke the fence. What happened??? Turns out our parents had raced a tornado home worried about us kids. They got home just in time to get us down stairs when it went over the top of us. They watched the lawn chairs floating in the air out on the deck then watched the tornado dump it's contents in the lake. I was mad at them for not joining us. What if?

Another good weather condition was being snowed in for 3 days! Yes that's right. Three days. We had so much snow dumped on us that the snow plows were having a heck of a time getting the roads cleared. We lived out in the country. The only transportation at that point was ski's, snow shoes, and snowmobiles. And lucky us, it was during the week! We didn't have to go to school. Yippee! Well, not so good, we ended up going to school longer that year, as we surpassed our given snow days. :( Oh I can hear my mother saying, "don't count our chickens before they are hatched." This is true mom, very true.

Then there was Germany. Two weather items from there. One time we had winds so strong that there were trees down everywhere. We watched out the windows and the trees were almost laying flat. I've never seen winds like that before. I can't remember what the top wind speed was, but it was outrageous. There was a lot of damage done. It was like a tornado had gone through and just wreaked havoc. It was an experience neither hubby or I had experienced.

The lightening over there was like none other I've ever seen before. The bolts were huge (wide) and sometimes looked yellow. I was always afraid of lightening and never liked watching it before, but there I was mesmorized by the beauty of it--but of course it still scared me, as there is no escaping it--but it was just amazing the amount, the size, the brightness, and the colors. I'd never seen lightening look that way before. I have yet to see any that compares to it here in the states. Anything to do with science is always intriguing to me. How does it happen. Why is it so different there?

And then there was Alaska, the place where the sun hardly ever shines. Depressing, oh yeah, at times. For someone with seasonal disorder this would not be the place to be. But not for us on that little island. We had so much exploring to do, we never got bored. Cold? Oh yeah, it was cold. Ever see grass, yup, but not much. But still, it was unique. I never did see the sun shine the whole time I was there. The hardest part; when it stayed light out for almost 24 hours. I guess a person would get used to it eventually just like anything else. All I know is I was glad to not have to deal with it for too long, as I'm one of those that has a hard time sleeping when it's light. Working mid shifts was hard. Sleeping during the day and not getting full darkness was very difficult. Eventually by that 4th and 5th day though, sleep came much easier.

Well there we have it. A whole post on weather. I do love the four seasons. I wouldn't want to live where you don't experience them.

So...do any of you have some interesting experiences with snow??? I would love to hear about it.