For many years, in my morning’s search through the daily paper I’ve looked for weather conditions in other parts of the country. Generally they are not too good.
There is usually a tornado or two in Alabama, maybe windstorms on the East Coast, most notably North Carolina, and, in these days anyway, gloom along most of the West Coast.
There could, of course be many reasons for having this information. One reason for knowing about weather conditions is rather common and that is so one can know how to plan one’s day.
Weather conditions dictate our dress, our mode of transportation, and perhaps other facets of our life. But more important they dictate our disposition and our demeanor— and there is not too much we can do about that.
An example of this is something I saw in the papers a few days ago. I was reading about a small town in Minnesota that was simply socked in because of an unexpected snow storm.
People awakened to a mound of white all about them, drifts of snow so high that doors of houses could not be opened or cars driven from garages. If it were me there is no mistaking what I would wind up doing. I would eat my breakfast, and then turn around and go back to bed. I would crank up my electric blanket until it hit the high mark, grab my Kindle with the novel of the day and burrow in for the duration.
I experienced this last Saturday. For reasons unknown I awakened early, showered and dressed as if I were going out on an adventure.
Carmen, the housekeeper, dropped in and volunteered to prepare my breakfast. Since I am becoming more averse to kitchen chores I told her to be my guest.
After my bacon and scrambled eggs I asked her what is next. We looked outside and saw, not snow like those folks in Minnesota, but a cold rain sweeping the streets.
“Go back to bed,” she said. Now who am I to oppose the wisdom of a sage and wise lady? I did exactly that. Before the day was over I had finished the latest James Patterson and was hunting the Kindle bookstore to download another one.
I generally reserve Mondays for preparing this copy. I have had the chance to read the Sunday papers and also Mondays for those weather conditions and other news. There was, in fact, little news. The front pages were full of political debates, this time in Florida. One would wonder if they have anything fresh to state. And the sports pages had nothing but bad news. There were a few articles about the late Joe Paterno and also the demise of the 49ers.
Regarding Paterno it is a sad state of affairs when an individual who spent an entire lifetime in one athletic program, reaping success after success, is best remembered for a sex scandal, something that he, in fact, was innocent of.
It is simply something that happened on his watch so he, along with others, had to be the fall guy. It is only proof how fragile and easily broken one’s posture might be regardless of the type of position he might hold.
The individual might win 410 college football games, more than any other coach and his legacy is one big asterisk. But such things happen.
As for the Niners, we just hated to see them lose. More important, I suppose, we hated to see the New York Giants win. The Giants quarterback, Eli Manning is the guy who spurned the Chargers, and by this act did not exactly endear himself to the local sportsmen.
On the other hand the San Francisco quarterback, Alex Smith, is homegrown, a local boy, so to speak, who deserves some allegiance. But, to repeat myself, such things happen.
In a few days my son David will be flying in and he is going to whisk me away to Palm Springs. The entire family thought that I should get away for a few days. I opted for that desert area looking for warmer weather. I see by the papers that the temperature there is almost the same as it is here. It is almost certain, however, that it will not snow in Palm Springs. But if it does there is always that electric blanket.
