Wow. It’s just about over. It’s
really over.
Tomorrow (tomorrow night at 8:05
Eastern time, actually) marks the Autumnal
Equinox, or as a normal person would put it, the beginning of
Fall. Summer’s over, and while we (once again) really didn’t
have much of a summer this year, the door has been officially slammed
on it.
Yikes!
Every week on the air we do something
we call our “At Work/Online Network Question of the Week”, in
which we ask a question on the air and also throw it on our station
Facebook page in hopes of getting a little discussion going. An
upcoming question, written knowing what is on the way, asks if
everyone is ready for another Upper Michigan winter.
I know what my answer will be.
I’ve always thought of Summer as a
time to recharge your batteries, a time to (literally) soak up enough
sun to wash away the memories of the winter you’ve just lived
through and to charge your psyche up enough to face the onslaught of
the next, upcoming cold season. I mean, that’s just how I perceive
it, but in talking with other people it seems like I’m not alone in
that area.
This year, though, was something
special. We had a brutally cold and brutally long-lasting winter,
one that I know drained my batteries far more than they’ve ever
been drained. We didn’t have much a spring at all, and then
“summer” this year consisted of a nice Memorial Day weekend, a
few nice days here and there, a hot (but hazy) July, and a few more
okay days in August before all heck broke loose. Sure, it might not
be too bad a day or two this week, but did we really have enough of a
“summer” this year to erase memories of what we lived through a
few months ago, and what we may have to live through a few months
hence?
Don’t answer; it’s mostly a
rhetorical question. After all, we each handle weather (and what it
does to us) in different ways. But I have a feeling that if you were
to ask 100 different U.P. residents that question that a
majority—maybe even a large majority—of them would answer the
same way I did.
And I don’t know if that’s a good
thing or not.
Maybe we’ll get lucky this winter.
Maybe there will be a strong El Nino in the Pacific this year, and
we’ll have warmer than average temperatures. Maybe, like a few
years ago, we won't even have any snow throughout the year.
Hopefully, though, we'll have few (if any days) where the temperature
falls below zero. Maybe Lake Superior won’t freeze this year,
which means that we’ll have a warmer Spring, which might lead to us
having a “normal” summer next year.
Maybe.
Living up here, you gotta have hope,
especially as far as the weather goes. After all, there’s nothing
you can do about it; you just have to live through it, and keep your
fingers crossed that it turns out for the best.
So as we head through the last full day of "summer" and stand on the brink of the first day of Fall, perhaps the best thing I can say is “good luck,
everyone”. We may need it.
(jim@wmqt.com)