Thursday, October 11, 2007

Fighting Autumn Prejudice

Here's a mystery for you: why are so many people unhappy with cool weather?

I have no tolerance for the heat. It makes me cranky, sweaty, lethargic--it even gives me headaches. I am less myself in the summer; I am dormant, waiting for fall.

As far as I'm concerned, today was the first nice day in months: cold, crisp, beautiful layers of gray and white clouds as lovely as a Van Gogh. 50 degrees and breezy: sweatshirt and football weather. Comfort food weather. Snuggling weather. What's not to like?

And yet every weather person is bemoaning the loss of the heat, the loss of summer, as if some precious gift had been taken. They face the camera with sad smiles and say, "It was nice while it lasted." Are they CRAZY? This is the first day I was able to teach my class without that horrible droplet of sweat that runs down my spine during every lecture. I had energy! I was vibrant! I have come out of hibernation. A teacher from across the hall came over and asked what had gotten into me today.

"I just like my subject matter," I said truthfully. But it was probably fall, too, and the wonderful cold that made me so energetic.

Tonight I went to an evening graduate class and all of my classmates were frowning and saying things like "It was eighty on Sunday! What happened to the heat?" They all grumbled together, bonding over their love of summer.

Guess what, I wanted to tell them--it's October! It's supposed to be cold! Tis the season!

Why, oh why, do people dislike this wonderful, crisp, refreshing, invigorating weather?

That's a real mystery to me.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Alas, I'm allergic to cold. My hands and feet go numb. Extreme heat is unpleasant too but I can handle it better than cold. My ideal temperature is 70 but anything from 55 to 75 is fine. Around here in the northeast it seems to be too cold out more often than too hot.

Julia Buckley said...

I agree, Eric. 55 to 70 is ideal, but I fear all of this heat

Julia Buckley said...

oops. I fear all of this heat may have cheated us of fall.

Anonymous said...

Yes, it may go straight to unpleasantly cold. There wasn't any real spring this year what with about a foot of snow in the middle of April!

Julia Buckley said...

How odd the seasons are these days; perhaps we'll have to rename them.