something windy and rainy this way comes

So something windy and rainy this way comes. Her dance could still spin out to sea, but it seems just as likely she will do a lindy hop across the central landscape. And right now, that predominates all conversation and focus.

I really detest conversations about weather, a sentiment to which I make myself hypocrite every time I complain about people discussing weather – especially when I bother to set myself down to write an entire blog about it. It is usually symptomatic of the fact there is nothing better to say and the dead space requires filling, so let’s lament the rain or the heat or the snow. Because if there is anything New Englanders know by instinct, it’s how to complain about the skies. And yet, in spite of our variable atmospheric patterns, it’s like Mother Nature reinvents herself every time she takes it up a notch. Every blizzard is suddenly the first one we’ve ever experienced. Every significant rain storm coupled with wind is a rude awakening to the fact we are a tiny state on the ocean. Let’s all freak out and tell everyone to run to the grocery store because we watch the same hyperbolic news broadcasts.

Now, I do get that Mother Nature is pretty terrifying. In fact, she can humble us in seconds. I remember that ice storm of 2008. I remember that devastation. I remember what happened here not even three months ago when a tornado burned a path from the Connecticut River to Rhode Island. I’m not naïve or foolish. We should be humbled and aware of her awesome power.

But that’s just it. We aren’t. We only pay attention when there is a chance our basements cluttered with unused crap could get a soaking. Or we feel a sudden impetus to stock our refrigerator with milk and eggs and other perishable food that will have to be used up in a mad dash when the power goes out. When all of a sudden we need to have plenty of water on hand so we can trash Mother Earth with empty plastic bottles after she supplies us with inches of free water. Or… oh my God… we have to live without the Internet for ACK a day. Maybe two. Oh dear Lord, whatever shall we do?

Are we really fixing a problem? Or are we just sticking a finger in the crack in the dam?

Maybe the forethought we should be having about these not so freak of nature anymore mega storms is that we should stop pissing Mother Nature off. Maybe we should be worried less about taping up our windows and stockpiling batteries and bottled water and start doing a thing or two that will stop these storms from getting worse. Or maybe we missed the boat on that one. Maybe this is just the prequel of what’s to come.

Either way, we still can’t predict it. We hope for the best and just keep our heads clear enough to get our shit together to deal with the worst. But whatever the worst is, come on people, we can deal with it. In the meantime, I’m going to weather the storm with the best kind of hurricane. The fruity cocktail.