Weathering the weather...

Damn, damn, and double damn. At times like this I almost despair. Stopped by the weather! Just when did that begin to happen?

I remember countless boyhood summer holidays sat in car parked boredom as I watched the grey stormy seas and listened to the rain beat down on the tinny roof of  our small family car. It wasn’t fun, but it wasn’t that bad. Not the sun, sea and sand we were hoping for of course and, yes, it was disappointing, but the weather didn’t seem to stop us back then. Perhaps it was the lack of an alternative.

I’ve taken that approach throughout my life both literally and metaphorically – never letting the weather stop me from doing what I wanted or needed to get done. I’ve been drenched to the skin so many times, rain running down my face in rivers, that I’m surprised that I’ve never grown gills. I’m no stranger to the elements. I’ve weathered cold, snow, sunshine and wind as I’ve meandered along through my life, but something is changing, I can feel it.

So the plan was to go to Wales for a few days. Not the best time of year maybe, but I’ve known February weekends where we’ve strolled along Whistling Sands to the rocks and sat in the sunshine without coats. Of course, I’ve also known other February days when the Whistling Sands winds were so fierce that the sea was whipped into a snowy froth and the car felt like it was being battered by the breath of giants. I’ve never known weather like this though; weather so bad that it’s stopped us from travelling because of the floods, fallen trees and the threat of no electricity.

Either we’ve changed or something else is going on and I think it’s something else.

The weather in our part of Wales remains fierce by all reports. A hundred miles an hour winds, flooding, trees blown around like matchsticks, seas brimming over into the streets. Some of the worst weather in memory; it makes you wonder it can get any worse. Meanwhile here in the city we’ve seen a few fallen trees and branches, some fluttering tiles, scattered left-out wheelie bins escaping along the road. Where were they escaping to? Who knows? Perhaps they were off to wheelie bin land to live out their plastic lives in plastic sunshine and get away from the wind.

There seems to be no escape from this weather wherever you are. Some places have it worse than others, much worse where the floods have taken over the land. But no matter where you may be there’s no doubting that the weather has negatively impacted our daily lives; something that we’re not really used to in the UK.

So, I’m not off to Wales as planned. Oh, I’ll get there again soon enough, maybe tomorrow. After all this horrendous weather can’t last forever; it’s disconcerting though. Yes, something is changing and I don’t think it’s all down to me. Maybe the weather’s changing me; maybe we’re all going to have to change with the weather.