We don’t take time to watch the news all the way through most days. When it gets to sports and weather, we tend to turn off the TV and turn our attention elsewhere. But, every once in a while, we stay tuned just to see if anything has changed much since the last time. Usually not, but we are ever hopeful.
Though it’s been true for a good many years, I never have become used to the way the weather report has become a huge segment in and of itself. I remember when it was a sort of afterthought – an update at the end of the news program to alert us about what to expect tomorrow. Sometimes there was a visual indicating where there might be rain or wind or some sudden and dire change. Or a picture of a mudslide. Period.
Of course, I’m talking dark ages here – back in the sixties when each television show still had just a single sponsor and there were “real” programs instead of “reality shows.” Only us old duffers really remember that. In those days, we still tended to look outside in the morning to see what the day might hold. We were interested in whether or not it looked like rain so we could decide whether or not to mow the lawn.
Actually, here in Oysterville, that’s what we still do. The news and weather stations, replete with meteorology maps, long-term forecasts, weather fronts, sky cams and impending doom don’t really cover our area. We just aren’t on the radar (or the satellite) so to speak. Bottom line – our teeny-tiny population doesn’t signify, at least not when it comes to buying huge amounts of the sponsors’ products. We are conveniently left out of the media loop.
Truth to tell, the more thorough reports and forecasts from the weather channel don’t do much better. It seems to me that it’s mostly a crap shoot anyway. Sometimes the weather turns out as predicted; sometimes it doesn’t. The fact that the news channels have parlayed the uncertainty into long, nightly meteorology lessons is truly a wonderment. It’s probably one of those everybody’s-out-of-step-but-me things but I really could care less.
I’m still content to look out and look up. I don’t necessarily know what the sky is telling me, But it’s always interesting and often really gorgeous. Yesterday it was mysterious – rippled clouds all across the eastern sky, both in the morning and in the evening. I have no idea what that means weather-wise, but I didn’t need charts and explanations to tell me it was beautiful. And, if it does rain today,,. the mowing will wait.
Gorgeous view. I love to sky or cloud watch. One day when I walked over to the main office to speak to payroll I noticed how lovely the clouds were. When I arrived they all wanted to know what was so interesting in the sky? They had noticed me looking up as I strolled over. They were astounded when I said I was enjoying the clouds.