Safe Topic

Snowed in this weekend. Again. We are supposed to get from 20 to 30 or more inches here around your nation’s capital. Last weekend we had 6 inches or so, and a few weeks before that we had 12 inches. Just before it hit, a book I had ordered came in from Amazon. We are all stocked with provisions. We brought in a big supply of wood for the fireplace. We are all set. I will do nothing and not feel guilty about it because I can’t even get out of the house.

I blame President Obama for all of this winter weather. Once he got elected, the oceans stopped rising and global warming ground to a halt. Actually, though, I should give him credit, since I consider the snow a good thing, as long as I’m not shoveling it or driving in it.

Normally, at this blog we talk about the two things that we are warned to NOT talk about, namely, politics and religion. So in our new Saturday edition today we will try to be more social. The safe topic, in contradistinction to those bad ones, is the weather. Is it possible to carry on an interesting conversation about the weather? Let’s try.

Do you have any weather stories? What was the hottest you’ve ever been? Has anyone drug through a desert under the hot sun as you were running out of water? What was the coldest? Has anyone endured anything like what Laura Ingalls Wilder’s father did in “The Long Winter,” where he went outside in a blizzard, got lost, couldn’t find the house, fell into a drift, and survived on the oyster crackers he had brought the family for Christmas? (If I’m remembering that right.) Have you tried to drive on the highway during an ice storm and spun out of control, barely escaping with your life? (I’ve done that.) Was the weather worse or better when you were a kid? Tell us your meteorology tales.