Day Two

So, how about his weather?

I was raised knowing that talking about the weather was trivial. It was something done by people who didn’t have anything “important” to say to others.

Nonetheless, when you have no job, no place to be, no people in your life other than the person you are always talking to, it is hard to find topics to discuss, particularly if you are try to avoid making comparisons with “back home.” So the weather seems to be a fairly common thing to discuss and, therefore, think about a lot.

Truth be told, the weather was also a lot of the reason we decided to trade our life in snowy Wisconsin for a new life in green and temperate Tennessee. So we were actually interested in the weather here on a day to day basis.  But we made the mistake of moving here right before the most unpleasant season down South – the summer.

While Don complained constantly about the heat and humidity, I took solace in the comments of locals regarding the fact that “this is a really hot year, not at all like normal.” I’m still hoping that this “really hot” summer is followed by an equally “really warm” winter to even things out. As Kylene pointed out to me when she moved to Savannah, the difference isn’t the extremes, but the fact that the extremes stay for a longer period of time than elsewhere. So, while we did get hot and humid weather in Wisconsin on occasion, it was nothing compared to day after day after sweltering day of 90 plus temperatures with accompanying high humidity. But we should be able to notice a more positive difference in February and March, when temperatures are moderating here while the cold and snowy and dismal days continue on and on and depressingly on in northwest Wisconsin.

It was a tough summer to endure, though, and I hope our bodies get more acclimated to the continuous heat in a few years. Our electric bill was quite high due to air conditioner usage one month but we’ve been making more use of fans after that one enormous utility bill shocker.

I know there is a lot more to a place than the weather, but when that is why you moved somewhere and when there is not a lot going on in your new life, it can take center stage. I’m looking forward to the passing of this phenomenon as I get more engaged in the important stuff of life.