Whether the weather is cold
or whether the weather is hot
The weather the weather whatever the weather,
Whether we like it or not.
Did you ever sing that silly song? We used to warm up with it in my high school chorus. That and one that went “Scotland’s burning Scotland’s burning, look out look out, fire! fire! fire! fire, Pour in water pour in water.”
Once, as we belted that out, the school’s alarm happened to go off. So as we made for the door, we started saying “Pinecrest burning Pinecrest burning…” It was amusing only because of course we were just having a drill.
Anyway, onto the substance of my post: our finicky summer weather. I think maybe this week our prognosticating forecasters may have gotten it more wrong than I can recall seeing. If you’d checked on Monday, they were saying the 4th of July period was to feature temperatures in the upper 90s. Now? We’re barely breaking 80. I guess I can’t take too much issue with that though, as it certainly makes sitting outdoors more tenable.
I think it’s part law of averages. After something like 16 days of 90s, a stretch not recorded since the early 50s, it had to cool down some.
But the other side of it is the return of moisture. Ah, rain! Yes I know we need it, otherwise we’d shrivel up like grass in Winter. And it feeds me and gives me drink and yadda yadda yadda.
Trying to maneuver through it, or plan around it, puts me in knots though! It keeps sneaking up this summer and ruining my fun.
Most notably, last weekend. My girlfriend and I hung out with my cousin and his wife in Charlotte on a sort of double date weekend, our second such get-together. First, I suppose I should just be glad I didn’t come down with another yucky cold, as had happened on the first go-round.
On Saturday, after having already survived a wet Friday night return from retrieving me at the train station “Maybe it’s getting all that stuff out of the system now!” we initially went clothes shopping at Concord Mills Mall, just outside of the Queen City. Oddly, it is, or at least was, the number 1 tourist attraction in North Carolina. I guess people like to shop, though certainly the Internet is taking a bite out of the brick and mortar infrastructure. This happened early in the afternoon, and with her help, I managed to get a couple of nice looking outfits for this upcoming conference without breaking the bank.
4:00, we got back on the road and decided to give Carowinds, the area’s amusement park, a shot. It’s all the way across town, straddling the line between North and South Carolina, and as we approached the weather steadily turned worse.
“Do we get a discount?” Yes, all four of us, totaling about $16 a head. Nice.
Also, they’ve implemented a system wherein we, I guess people with disabilities though I don’t know how wide-ranging a group is covered, don’t have to physically stand in line for a ride, but we must still board in such time that we have basically waited. You have to approach the boarding area and sign up for the first available time, which could be hours away. Our first choice required a two-hour wait. This was ok though, because it could still allow us to maximize our time there by making it so we could just jump onto rides with shorter lines while awaiting our go on the more peopled ones.
“Now you know what’s gonna happen as soon as we get in here,” I leaned in and whispered to her. “It’s gonna pour down!”
Hey, I didn’t do anything! It was pretty obviously going to occur. Our hope was that maybe we could wait it out. So my cousin and I went into a souvenir shop and got panchos that were little more than glorified plastic bags. They did have all-important hoods to keep our hearing aids dry.
In line for the intimidator, the ride named for NASCAR’s Dale Earnheart, already fairly close to the stairs going up to the ride actually. DRIP. “I’ma wipe that away real quick because it was actually just my imagination!” I thought to myself. DRIP DRIP. No no NO NO NO! Then, out came the plug from the sky.
A mad scramble through the bag where she’d placed it, and a quick dance to wrangle the pancho over my head, first through the buttoned sleeves then more correctly with the hood oriented as it needed to be. And all who were left squeezed into the small amount of shelter along the rails and hoped.
“Ah ok, the sky is clearing,” she said. “And, now it’s slowing down.”
To the top of the stairs, we were then stymied by the operator’s inability to re-open the ride until he’d received the proper clearance. C’mon come! on! I wanna at least ride one coaster! iPhone out to check likely conditions “Severe Thunderstorms, chance of rain 66%. *sigh*
And sure enough, an impenetrable wall of grey soon began approaching and the skies recommenced their works. This drove most everyone, including us, to the exits. WAH! Ah well, we gave it the ole try. And I guess that dough at least bought me a crazy story.
So yeah rain, leave me alone! I’ve actually been remarkably fortunate most times though, somehow just missing dangerous thunderstorms. But needless to say that even one spout can make life challenging when trying to cross the street and the like. I guess it comes with the territory in our summers, so I’ll just have to suck it up, and try to stay dry.