Weather Whining

This was the local forecast I read late last night:

The second round of downpours could dump two to five additional inches on some areas in southeastern Massachusetts Thursday, the forecasters said.

Meteorologists expect tomorrow's state average to be between one-quarter inch and 1.5 inches of rain.

"Some areas may only get one-hundredth of an inch. Some other areas will get deluged. That’s just how it goes," meteorologist Walter Drag said.

Who cares right? Rain and poop *happens*.

But we've just endured 6 weeks of absymal weather up here in New England. It's been cold, cloudy, and wet seemingly every single day. I kid y'all not!

We suffered through a veritable 5-6 month winter for this?

Last week we went camping. My wife got all depressed looking at the ten day forecast for our trip:



Click that graphic to enlarge. Basically it forecast rain 7 out of the 8 days (Sat-Sat) were to be camping.

Now, it had already been miserable for several weeks so I tried to convince my wife that the forecast was fighting the law of averages and also that a *10 day* forecast is inherently a joke from these clowns who perpetually struggle with 1 and 2 day outlooks.

But that forecast turned out to be 100% prescient - even overly optimistic because while we got the rain everyday it forecast....it turned out even colder than was foreseen. The one *10% chance of rain* - Thursday - did turn out to be our token, beautiful sunny day. What are the odds that meteorologists could make a long-term forecast so accurate?

AND, bear in mind that this ridiculous spring/summer is on top of a brutal winter. When I escaped to Naples, FL this January....I missed a whopping 3 feet of snow. Point of fact, when I came back in February I had a couple *moms* (of small children) tear up recounting the month I was gone.

Woe to government school kids in Massachusetts this year! Many of them had school extended until the very end of June. We met plenty of families camping last week who had their kids missing their last school days. (My *homeschooled* did not. We found time for math, and a bit of reading every single day we were on *vacation*.)

But there are ramifications well beyond depressed psyches for weather this unusual.

How do y'all think the restaurants, hotels, and local economies of beach towns are faring? Their season is only 2.5-3 months to begin with. Is anyone doing any gardening? Having cookouts? Or traveling anywhere? I don't think so.

I've also heard loud whining from golf courses; and painters who need several consecutive *dry* days to paint exteriors.

I know it certainly doesn't qualify as *real hardship*, but the past month plus has been extraordinarily cruel to a populace already beset with economic woes.

And I'm not kidding one iota when I say that, for typical Massholes: eco-pagans, sports religionists, and communists, thank God the Red Sox are winning these days!