Weather to Worry

“Is it raining out?” My father asks beginning his ritual morning rising of my brain from the dead.
I roll over and open my left eye to peer at the window.
“No.” I growl “Why?”
“Cause Al Roker’s getting soaked on the Today show,” he says with a glint of enthusiasm and twinge of worry. “Hey says it’s might snow this weekend but it could miss you.”
My father obsesses about my weather more than I do. Florida’s weather alternates between hot and hotter, so I figure the chance for snow, sleet, and hail holds more of an attraction for him. Plus, watching Al Roker in front of Dean and Deluca’s might help him feel closer to his thirty-plus year-old baby. Whatever the reason, I wonder why people, not just my dad, obsess about and, from what I observed this winter, despise bad weather so much.
Whenever the temperature drops below forty degrees my hospital disables the automatic doors to the main lobby. The sign placed outside the entrance reads, “Due to the unusually cold weather the automatic doors have been disabled.” Last I checked the temperature in February often plunges below twenty. What is unusual about that?
I’m not a geologist nor meteorologist, but I remember learning something in elementary school about rotation of the earth and the Northern Hemisphere being further from the suns rays during the winter months. The planet rotated and spun this way for billions of years so, except for some ice ages, it must know what it is doing. Sixty degrees on Groundhog Day scares the crap out of me. What have we done the earth? It seems that I am alone in that sentiment because during those wacky warm days even strangers on the bus mention how fabulous it is. And when the cold moves in, it’s grumble, grumble, and whine. Go move to Florida. Take my old apartment-one mile from the beach; bring truckloads of sunscreen and prepare to roast. I’ll stay in thirties.
On the off chance I actually watch the news I notice the weathermen, when delivering the news about a rainy day, adopt the attitude of a doctor breaking the news of an evil polyp. “Well it looks like rain in the middle of the week, but don’t worry there’s a warm front coming in to push those dark clouds away. It’ll be nice and sunny on the weekend.
Don’t misunderstand. I do not support dark, cold and gloomy days year round. I like the sun in the late spring and summer. I like lollygagging on a rock in Central Park. I just think that we should appreciate the change in weather and realize there is a reason for it. The planet would prune and die without RAIN. Snow protects grass from dog poop and footsteps when it’s frigid, so when spring comes it will grow strong. Okay, I made that up though it makes sense to me.
We are entering a scary time in regard to weather and the state of our planet. Some say that Doomsayer scientists exaggerate the threat of Global Warming. I’m not sure either way, but I do see a change from the New Jersey winters of my childhood to the winters of today.