fair weather

trying to figure out just what to type on this one when it struck me. weather. we all have it, we all deal with it, it's just part of being wherever in the world you are at any given moment. how do we deal with it?

many time i've caught myself saying that i don't like cold weather, wind, i don't like the steamy hot, whatever. i would relish a life in about 75 degrees and sunny with the occasional thunderstorm. bad thing is there would be no season changes. i wouldn't be able to experience snow. i wouldn't feel any cooler temps or hot and sweltering climates.

the age-old dilemma with me is, would i rather be hot or cold? i think i'd rather be hot. i can seemingly never put on enough clothes to get or stay warm. hell, i'm sitting in front of my pc typing this with a winter jacket and hat on even though it's 68 inside. i can typically take off layers of clothing if i'm too hot or find some water, breeze, or fan to help cool down. plus i usually find myself eating more when it's colder for some reason. i excercise more in the warmer months and like to be outside. i don't like being inside during the winter because there's not as much to do and being couped up with 3 kids inside a house can be a bit hectic.

i can remember as a kid being snowbound in our house during the blizzard of '78. we were in the house for 2 weeks without power. close to 20' snow drifts lined the road in front of the house. mom cooked all the meals over the fireplace. my brother and i dug tunnels through the drifts all day and had a blast. no school. all of us sleeping in front of the fireplace at night with a fire to keep warm.

towards the end a farmer down the road used one of his tractors to plow a road through our backyard because the county plows kept getting stuck trying to clear our road. for a couple days i can remember getting picked up for school by the bus in our back yard being led by a tractor. talk about neat!

now i live on the same road, next door to that same house and i have the same worries. there's nothing stopping the road from being drifted shut again. i have a 4x4 truck but that's not everything. hell, last winter the driveway drifted over and the road was clear! just one of those problems living out in the country away from salt, sand, and plows.

one time when i was working in the persian gulf i got a dose of weather reality. i left around midnight on a flight to amsterdam. it was over 100 degrees and sweltering hot. by the time i got to amsterdam about 8 hours later it was 32 degrees and snowing. i was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. i was getting some really odd looks from people in schipol (the airport). got a room in the hotel there inside the airport, buddy gave me a sweatshirt to keep warm, and when i got home i told myself i'd never again travel overseas without wearing pants and having a jacket or sweatshirt of some kind.

well, i guess it's not as bad as getting a room at the ice hotel. you imagine?

i usually got lucky enough when i worked overseas to be in warmer climates. most of the time i was in tropical or sub tropical areas. on occasion i worked where it's cold and crappy like in the north sea. hell, even the gulf of mexico gets damn cold in the winter. but for places like africa, the caribbean, asia, the weather was usually nice and warm, if not hot. even their cold days were like spring or early summer back home. there were days when there was no breeze whatsoever and the humidity was off the charts making things hotter. in the persian gulf it's just as bad if not worse. dry, sandy and gritty, and seldom wet. seemed odd that on rare occasion they got snow in the deserts. never got to see it but always heard about it.

usually half the winter here in the us i'd be gone for. i'd usually come home with a tan from working outside in the sun while overseas and look kind of odd. it was always one of those perks from working overseas. nice and warm, missed half the winter, got a nice tan, wanted to go back to miss even more of the cold weather.

granted, there were times offshore i wish i was home for various reasons but i liked missing the cold. i was raised in the midwest where snow's a normal occurrence. i got spoiled when i began working overseas in warmer areas. some of them weren't the most picturesque areas but they were warm. at times it got boring seeing nothing but water, water, another rig or platform, more water, but i survived it all.

lots of times there were no quiet places to go to sit and think or just be by myself. privacy doesn't happen with 100 other guys crammed on a rig. the helideck was my only refuge. countless times i fell asleep on the helideck, relaxing listening to my cd player and just enjoying the warm sun and relative quiet that that area of the rig offered me.

dealing with climate changes has always been part of my life. there are those who don't see any changes. they're stuck where they're at forever. they don't get to see the leaves change. no thunderstorms, no wind chill, no snowball fights, no brown grass, all the things i've seen over and over again.

here in the midwest people go to florida for the winter. my parents used to spend a couple months there and miss the majority of the winter. i used to ask, "where to people from florida go for a vacation?" seems like most people go there for a vacation. think it'd be odd living in a tourist destination. trying to find a place non-touristy would be the key to get away from everything. i used to love goig to gatlinburg, for example. i'd try to go during the off season when all the tourists weren't there. lot quieter and not as much hussle and bussle. i'd go in the middle of the off season but still early enough that i could see the leaves on the trees in the smokies change. gorgeous, quiet, and relaxing. used to make that trip for a week every year in october or november. well worth it. it was my vacation away from everything.

just some of the views from the hills and mountains in the park were breathtaking. climbing up chimney top and being above the clouds while still being able to see the higher elevation's trees and their awesome colors was simply beyond words. quiet, peaceful, just made me smile as i was able to sit there quietly and take in all the world's beauty right in front of me. amazing how different seasons have the ability to produce so much tranquility.

and then lastly we get to the "other" seasons such as summer and tornado season, hurricane season, drought season, the rainy season,... they all have their names for a reason. i've gotten to see a couple tornadoes, seen a couple water spouts, lived through blizzards, experienced a couple tropical depressions, storms, and hurricanes. i just think that even though i'd like to be in a place where the weather's always warm but not hot would be wonderful, it'd be boring. no excitement. nothing to "ooooo" and "ahhhh" over. no scenery to speak of. nothing to tell me that it's getting later in the year. no anxiously awaiting the tulips to pop out in the spring or the leaves budding out to them changing their gorgeous colors in the fall. no smell of fireplaces in the wintertime keeping people and houses warm. all those things are part of changing seasons; seasons that i'm glad i still get to experience, good weather or bad.