I feel like Ned Flanders!
So, I was driving home from work yesterday and as I left Abbotsford and grew closer to Chilliwack, the snow started to fall. Well, not fall, exactly. More like, um, assault my car. I could hear it hitting the windshield with a “paff” sound that made me think of disintegrating moths. But thousands of them, at once. Visibility grew to nearly nil, drivers around me slowed to a near halt, and we all took part in the Lower Mainland ritual of cursing weather we don’t understand. For whatever reason, the moment it started, I thought of Ned Flanders, when his house was torn away by a tornado and the town pulled together to build a new house for him. The work they did was done “Shoddilly-iddily-iddily-diddly” and Ned tries to “diddly” his way out of his rage, but then finally explodes in “aaaw hell diddly ding dong crap!”
Every time I see this episode I think that someday that’ll be me. It makes me laugh, a lot. And when the snow started to fall last night on the drive home, I felt like Ned. But then I got to thinking. Why do we curse the weather? What is it about precipitation that can bring out the worst in us? Why is it that snow can make me curse, and hail makes me laugh? Why do I feel better when the sun comes out, even in the middle of a cold and stormy day? Why are clouds associated with depression (even the pharmaceutical companies have played on that trope)? Why are we so emotionally wrapped up in weather?
BTW, I “sepia-ed” this same photo because both my wife and I thought it had an “old” look to it. What do you think? Which is the better photo?
