Friday, October 23, 2009

Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring

Once upon a time I remember when the seasons followed each other in regular order. If you looked at the calendar and then out of the window, you knew precisely which season you were in. Okay, on rare occasions you would have a day that didn't seem to fit the expected weather. But it was unusual enough that everyone was in amazement. I remember back in 1964 that NYC had a late December day that hit 62 or thereabouts, and it was the lead on the evening news, it was that unusual.

It's not so easy today to know what season you are in, despite the calendar's saying it's the end of October. Years back all the summer and lightweight clothing would have been put away already. Apartment buildings and office buildings and schools had on their schedules that the heat needed to be turned on somewhere between October 1 and October 15. Lots of apartment dwellers and office workers and school employees this year who were freezing in that first week of October. And lots of them yesterday, with the heat already turned on, who were sweltering as outside temperatures went over 70. (Ironic really as there was snow seen in Westchester County last week.) After sitting out for a while in an open parking lot yesterday, my car was hot and stuffy--I had to turn on the air conditioning for a few minutes to get the temperature down enough to make driving comfortable. This week alone NYC seems to have run through the four seasons.

The weather man has announced that we are in for a drop in temperature for a few days, as well as pouring rain. Of course we are--it's Shabbos and everyone is going to be walking around. And that same forecaster said we are going to be in for a bad winter here--expect lots and lots of snow and freezing temperatures. Except, of course, for those days when it's going to seem like June in January.

I'm thinking that Global Warming may be a misnomer. Maybe we should talk about our weather as being "Calendar Challenged," incapable of doing what's expected in any given season. I'd put away my light weight clothing today except that I'm a proponent of the Maternity Clothes school of weather forecasting. Any woman can tell you that you hang on to those maternity clothes until you are a grandmother; otherwise, the minute you give away those clothes you are going to find yourself pregnant. Pack away those lightweight clothes today and next week you are going to find yourself needing them, or even next month.

2 comments:

Joel said...

People who never leave or almost never leave their home cities are finally experiencing what those of us who travel on business have been facing for years.

Into one suitcase I've had to pack clothing that will work for one trip that covers Minnesota, Arizona and Florida in the winter. I often head from blizzard conditions to hot and sticky ones.

But yeah, it's kind of weird when those conditions all are in the same place over just a few days. I was in Denver recently and it went from 90 one day to snow the next day.

Anonymous said...

I don't know about the weather, but your point about maternity clothes is scarily true.