Weather Or No

     During a period of time, somewhere between the mid 1940's and the mid 1960's, a phenomenon encompassed a good deal of the globe.  In the beginning, it was called the post-war era.  The world was calming down and things were beginning to look forward to a brighter future.  

     I reckon, that because folks were so happy, the best thing to do was to have babies.  Well, that probably wasn't the initial reason, but the outcome was an upheaval in the world's population.  In the United States alone it was estimated that the annual birth rate increased by 4 million.  Later, this new generation was referred to as the baby boomers.

     Now that we have reached the year 2016, this group of people are now somewhere between the ages of 51 and 70 years old.  The Boomers have been blamed for all kinds of things, being spoiled, being excessive and if there really is global warming or climate change, that is probably their fault too.  But, with this group came lots of new changes and ideas that were meant to make life easier and more enjoyable.

     One of those new ideas was a television show dedicated to nothing but the weather.  I don't know what it is about the baby boomer generation, but they do like to watch the weather channel. Maybe it's because they are getting older and it's just easier to grab the remote than it is to get up out of the recliner and walk out the door.

     Since I fall somewhere between the above stated ages, I too have fallen into the weather watching phenomenon.  I do not sit and watch it on TV, but I have a wonderful app on my cell phone that shows me the current temperature and other weather related nonsense at the tap of an icon.  This app has another feature that has allowed me to become a "weather creeper".  It lets me add different locations, anywhere in the world and each day I can look to see what the weather is like in places where I know someone. Places like Phoenix, Arizona, where sister Lela lives, or Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the residence of my proof reader extraordinaire and Houston, Texas, the home of a good friend. I even add places where I have never been, just to see what is going on there weather wise.  Recently though, I had cause to actually sit down and watch what the weather had in store for a long journey I was about to embark on.  That is when I discovered yet another phenomenon had taken place.  

     Remember when MTV first hit the airwaves of television?  One could sit, stand, or dance along to all the latest music videos.  Then someone decided rather than to show only music videos, they would ramble on aimlessly about the artist or fill the spot with more useless information.  The M that stood for music had turned into mundane.  As I perused the channels looking for the weather forecast, I realized the same thing had happened to the beloved weather channel.  The TV guide showed endless listings of shows about weather, what it had done and where it had done it, but no plain old weather forecasts.

     I posted my plight on a popular social media site and it was not long before someone suggested that if I scroll down one channel, I would find what I was looking for.  To my relief, there it was, weather on the 9's.  I watched it, over and over, hoping it would change.  I finally decided that maybe the weather where I was going would be like the weather where I was leaving, "if you don't like it, just wait a day, it will change." 

     I don't know why weather watching is so entertaining.  Perhaps it is because, for the most part, that it is the one thing we simply cannot do anything about.  It is what it is.....weather or no.