Even when weather falls into its perfectly predictable patterns, weather has long-since been a topic of polite, casual conversation. The lines are scripted. There’s nothing new to add. If you do it right, you might move on to a more fulfilling topic, or else you might decide there really isn’t anything interesting to say to this particular person. As someone who regularly rides in taxi cabs driven by near strangers, I talk about the weather a lot. <\/p>\n
But this year it’s different. Winter has forgotten to come. Or maybe he’s just late. And I’ve forgotten my lines.<\/p>\n
Most of the opening lines I get suggest that the weather is terrific! Currently 53 degrees and sunny on January 10th? Great! And I’m supposed to say that it is<\/em> beautiful, and that I am very much enjoying the weather.<\/p>\n It’s not beautiful, and I’m not enjoying the weather. Frankly, it scares me. Global climate change is happening right here and now, it’s in our faces, and still, people are in denial. <\/p>\n Beautiful? There are no leaves on the trees and the grass is dead. This happens every winter, but it is normally accompanied by a certain crispness and yes, even snow (at least here in the Midwest) that mark this as a time of transition and renewal. The earth is asleep, waiting for spring. Hibernating, if you will. <\/p>\n Just because it is 53 degrees and sunny outside does not mean Spring is here. Spring is a time of rebirth, of the most wonderful scents and fragrances of the year as flowers bloom and trees awaken. Spring is also a welcome relief, after the bitter chill.<\/p>\n And Winter isn’t so bad, really. It lends itself to hot tea and hot cocoa, to warm soups and warm fires. We have yet to use our fireplace this year. <\/p>\n No, this isn’t Winter. It’s some kind of new season, something I don’t know and therefore don’t trust. (Hey, I can be honest! \ud83d\ude42 ) <\/p>\n Last Summer, we had a record heat-streak lasting several weeks with temperatures well above 100 degrees. I wonder what this Summer will bring. <\/p>\n I also wonder if Old Man Winter will make an appearance soon, and what beauty he will bring. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Even when weather falls into its perfectly predictable patterns, weather has long-since been a topic of polite, casual conversation. The lines are scripted. There’s nothing new to add. If you do it right, you might move on to a more fulfilling topic, or else you might decide there really isn’t anything interesting to say to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chitchat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1206"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1207,"href":"https:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1206\/revisions\/1207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}