Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

He said to the crowd: “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘It’s going to rain,’ and it does.  And when the south wind blows, you say, ‘It’s going to be hot,’ and it is.  Hypocrites!  You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky.  How is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time?

• Luke 12:54-56

I enjoy watching a television channel devoted to weather, but oh, how they infuriate me at times.

The other day, a meteorologist told the audience that we are about to get a little relief from the heat, but don’t get too happy, this is late July, and August is usually hotter.  I did say “the other day” so I know it is already August.

The point being, people were complaining about the heat.  It seems that less than three months ago, right before Memorial Day, people were complaining about “When will summer get here?”  I was not among them.

I am not complaining about the meteorologists as much as I am complaining about the audience changing the narrative, and the meteorologists pandering to their complaints.  Do you want it hot or cold or do you just want to complain?

When I was in the Army, a sergeant clued me into a bit of normal human behavior, relating it to the men in my platoon.  He said that a troop’s (soldier’s) favorite assignment is the duty station where he just left or the one he is about to go to.  That is true about nearly everyone.  People are never satisfied with now.  They are never content.

I have not hidden from the fact that I am sensitive to heat related disorders.  As a result, I avoid the heat whenever possible, dreading the move to Tennessee that is still not scheduled.  When I moved North, I told God that I would never complain about how cold it got.  I came close once.  It was about the third or fourth day in a row where the low temperature for the day was near or below zero Fahrenheit and when I went out, before the sun rose, to put something (salt and bord seed) on the front steps for traction and then reentered the house 30 seconds later, my wife asked if it was cold.  I said, “’Tis a mite brisk.”  It was actually below zero at that time before dawn.

I have never liked the gas bill in the winter.  Of course, the gas company raises the rate when you are using the most gas.  And we have gotten used to the house temperature in the mid-60s Fahrenheit all winter.  So, a house temperature in the mid-70s in summer is HOT.

I recently visited our son’s family in Tennessee, and I spent time outdoors as seldom as possible, but I soon acclimated, uncomfortable, but not ill.  I have been ill back in the North ever since returning due to the high heat and poor air conditioning in our home.  The A/C simply cannot keep up.

But the television channel is correct.  In the Northern Hemisphere, there is at least another month of hot weather with a month of mostly hot to follow that.  Why do we have to complain?

But as for Jesus mentioning “hypocrites”, I do take exception to a channel that tries to brainwash everyone on Climate Change (not that it exists, but to the measures to fix it), so is it hypocritical to want the weather to warm up more?  They have a couple of meteorologists who have claimed that high 80s is not hot enough for them, but their channel warns about high temperatures.  This is definitely crossed signals here.  Are you against global warming or are you cheering it on?

And as for severe weather, there is severe weather all year, but with most snowstorms you can manage, but hurricanes and tornadoes and hailstorms (all generated by unstable high temperatures) are something else entirely.  Cold weather: have extra provisions in case you get snowed in.  Hot weather: evacuate and hope the house is still there when you return.  Not the same!!!!  You wonder when a meteorologist is begging for hotter weather whether they just like warm climate or they want something (that could be destructive or deadly) to happen to make the reporting more exciting.

Yes, it is sure hot out there, but it is August.  It should be hot this time of year.

And before we get on the global warming bandwagon, that only accounts for a couple of degrees.  When a high pressure system parks itself and does not want to move, that area and much of the surrounding area will suffer from a heat wave.  I remember when we lived in South Carolina.  One summer, a high pressure system settled over Atlanta and every storm front, carrying cooling rain, that came across the USA turned in Chattanooga, TN and went north.  We were breathing stale, hot air for months.

C. S. Lewis wrote that most of the vices, or deadly sins, pertain to the future.  Our Hope, our Joy, and our Love are rooted in right now.  Let us celebrate and rejoice in right NOW, regardless of the temperature.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.