There are people who love the sun, the sand, and the surf. People who love easy days when there is no weather about them, save for the cooling breezes and the shift between the sun and the moon. For those people, I applaud them – they are in their comfort zone – their zen space – that place where they feel most at ease. Some people enjoy the desert heat, and bask in it. Hey………more power to them, because they were raised on that climate, so that is what their bodies are used to. You have those who live up north – way up north where it’s cold just about all the time – unrelenting in its presence. All the same, you can keep that. You’re used to it constantly, but I am not.
I do like a little variety in my weather – the same thing day after day is a bit stifling and a little monotonous. There are a couple of different things I enjoy about the weather more than most, and they’re dominant in different parts of the year – snow and rain.
The dictionary definition of a “pluviophile” is “one who enjoys the rain”, and I am one of those self-proclaimed pluviophiles. I love the rain – especially a nice, soft rain. Thunderstorms and I have not really gotten along over the years though. I was in grade school going out to the field with my class to play kickball when clouds came in and lightning struck the metal backdrop by home base (yes, we ran into school very fast when that happened). The next time, I was at one of my aunt’s house for my cousin’s wedding reception, and during the party, a bolt of lightning hit the house we were in. No one was hurt, but it blew the power out for a while. Just the thought of being out in a thunderstorm still makes me a bit nervous to this day – even when I’m out driving and have been told many times that you are safest in your car, that still doesn’t help my nerves calm down.
It’s still a lot of electricity flying through the air.
While I enjoy the softly-falling snow, there is a limit to how low the temperature goes before I start having a problem with it – usually after it gets past -10 or something like that. Above zero temps don’t bother me all that much, aside from taking longer to warm up the car in the morning. A clear night, new-fallen snow, and a full moon is one of the most glorious sights you can behold – just vast blankets of unbroken, sparkling white snow – untouched by any hands or vehicles……….yeah………that is really something. Walking past parking lots, seeing the gargantuan mountains of snow, shoved aside by the trucks, looming over the lots, casting shadows is always cool, even at night. It also never fails me to see that people have all of a sudden lost an important ability – the ability to drive carefully. They will careen about all over the place like a lost pinball, bouncing off of whatever they happen to slide into, usually causing someone else to become part of the encounter of which they never wanted to be a part of in the first place because they were driving more carefully.
On the same token, people tend to be more careless in the rain as well. People don’t seem to understand that a layer of water can and will form between their tires and the road when it’s raining buckets outside (not literally……that would hurt!). They also get brave and think they can cross a flooded street or crossing because “they won’t get stuck”. Yeah……..they find out as they end up floating downstream, along with everyone else who thought the same thing. I remember underpasses getting flooded out to the point where you could almost go fishing in there (not sure what you would have caught), and for us kids at the time, it was great to see this instantaneous pond form up out of nowhere right in the middle of town. Of course, you were smart enough not to wade out into one because those storm drains would suck you down faster than anything if the manhole cover was ever dislodged for whatever reason.
Aside from all the nuttery, rain and snow can be beautiful if you take the time and stop to watch it and just enjoy another one of life’s wonders unfolding before your eyes. Oh……and don’t forget the smell of the fresh rain………..oh yeah………that’s the best part of all.