Let It Rain

When did weather become news? I think the change happened around the time people started expecting news to be entertaining. And I hate it.Weather makes great neutral conversation. It's always there. That aspect of its nature is both its greatest strength and its worst flaw.A weather forecast is a useful thing, even a life-saving one, yes. Weather is astonishing. The changing seasons and the eternal dance between air, earth and water can be brutal and beautiful by turns, sometimes even at once. I'm a skywatcher and the day my parents got cable and I got 24-hour access to a radar image-- oh, that is a happy childhood memory. Weather is Da Best.That's exactly why I hate weather as news. When weather is treated as an event rather than the norm, when its never-ending changeability is  weighted down with all the hype and breathless excitement that accompanies news stories these days, it loses its ability to awe.In giving weather shock value, we're ignoring its true power, and that makes me sad.Time: 3:10 PMTea: Glass o' milkSteep: One does not steep milk.