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Anne E. Kettenbrink: Weather leftovers
How’s the weather?
Fickle. Temperamental. Mercurial.
Those words are a perfect description. No, not me. The weather.
Last Sunday was perfectly gorgeous. Warm, breezy and sunny is unusual for a December day in most climates that have seasons.
Of course, that was only until about 4 p.m.
And then winter bared her ugly face a week early, according to the calendar, which seems to think that winter begins today.
Just days before such a strange, only-in-Missouri phenomenon, I was discussing the state’s strange weather patterns with someone who had lived in multiple locations, none of which prepared him for the indecisiveness that is the forecast here.
“In New York, when it’s hot, it’s hot all the time,” he said. “When it’s cold, it’s cold all the time.”
Well, maybe you’ve noticed, but this ain’t New York.
That’s nice if you can get it, I guess, but if that’s what you were expecting when you got here, I believe someone may not have told you the truth.
Being from Missouri, I am used to the ever-changing climate. I kind of like the variety. It’s nice to think that winter has finally blown in, only to have a short reprieve.
Of course, it works the other way around, too. I when I worked on a school magazine as part of a college class. Most of the other students in the class were from out of state, drawn to Missouri by the great School of Journalism. A hometown student was a rarity.
Anyway, we were diligently planning one of our April issues during March, and most of the other students were excitedly planning a spring issue filled with the hope of warm weather, days spent lounging on the Quad and the thought of not having to trek through campus wearing a huge coat.
I tried to warn them. I regaled them with stories of Aprils past, when it had snowed on my birthday, which is well into April. It was to no avail.
The issue was released with a cover showing a student cavorting in a baby pool with pool toys. And the week it was released, it snowed.
I had to bite my tongue.
But I couldn’t really blame them. I mean, these people were unprepared to attend college in a state where it was impossible to conserve the limited amount of closet space you were allotted in the dorm by switching out winter and summer wardrobes during trips home. Some of them tried freshman year. I’m pretty sure after being left with only sweaters to wear on 80-degree January days, they altered their plans for sophomore year’s closet-rotating schedule.
So, while the finicky weather causes eye-rolling, I can’t really say I mind it. That’s the way things are, and it makes it exciting to live here in Mother Nature’s grab-bag. Sure, Mother Nature, we’ll take whatever’s left at the bottom of the bag when the other, more important states like California and New York are finished picking.
We prefer the leftovers.
They make life interesting.
But we would prefer someone else get the ice storms this year.
Address correspondence to Anne E. Kettenbrink, c/o The Joplin Globe, P.O. Box 7, Joplin, MO 64802, or via e-mail, akettenbrink@joplinglobe.com.
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