Comments | jobob_80: Talking about the weather

jobob_80

Talking about the weather

Oct 03, 2009 15:04

It's stormy out today. One of those autumn days where it's blustery and windy, and the trees bow over and half-green leaves dance in the air and on the ground. Sometimes it rains, sometimes the sun comes out. An announcement from the weather that it is no longer summer ( Read more... )

Comments 7

randomdiversion October 3 2009, 18:40:21 UTC

It's not that the geology etc. are ordered so that life-giving rain falls from the sky, it is that the accident of life-giving rain falling from the sky is what has caused us to be here.

jobob_80 October 4 2009, 11:08:27 UTC

:) The phrase "Tom-ay-to, tom-ah-to" comes to mind. I don't think it's as simple as effect-follows-cause. And in any case, it's not hard to imagine life evolving, or at least surviving, without rain - Terry Pratchett did it in The Discworld, for a start. There just needs to be a plentiful and accessible supply of fresh water.
I have spoken to a chemist about the most significant contributor to life on Earth, and the answer he gave was "hydrogen bonding". Hydrogen bonding means that ice is less dense than water and hence floats. This means the oceans don't freeze from the bottom up, as most other substances do. We'd be in real trouble with frozen oceans. Arguing the anthropic principal is all very well and philosophically sound, but it does take some of the wonder out of life.

randomdiversion October 4 2009, 17:24:52 UTC

I disagree. I don't think it is possible to take the wonder out of life. The more answers you have the more fascinating the questions become.

dalg October 4 2009, 08:01:10 UTC

Since I started cycling to work, I've discovered a perverse pleasure in cycling in the rain. OK I get to shower and change when I get to work, but there is something undeniably pleasant about cycling in the rain.

The wind however.....

jobob_80 October 4 2009, 11:09:08 UTC

Yes, I can see how cycling in the wind might be unpleasant :)

lordofthemoon October 4 2009, 12:22:12 UTC

Hear hear! Wonderful post, and properly put into words something that I've felt and thought for years. Our weather in this country is just about perfect and autumn and winter have their own wonderful beauty. It's sad that we're almost conditioned not to see it.

lil_fuzzy_ki10 October 5 2009, 12:22:32 UTC

I don't like being outside in the rain and the cold. Well, not unless I can soon be inside, warm and dry and having a change of clothes.
That said:
I like stormy weather (especially by the sea where the wind causes the waves to rise so high and come crashing down with such ferocity that it is hard not to be amazed.) Lightning and the rolls of thunder. The power involved - amazing.
I like Spring. The new leaves creeping out from the branches, the faintly warm sun on the first flowers.
Summer is ok - the long days, the green.
Winter - frosts and snow. The anticipation of Christmas (which I generally find better than Christmas itself) and as you say, the stars (I miss stars - you don't see them so much here. I love trips down to my Dad's in winter. Near the coast. Fairly dark. Stars aplenty. Open fire.) and as you say:
But joy and beauty in the winter have a profundity to them, a rareness that makes them a hundred times as precious.

I couldn't agree more. I sometimes find it easier to take great pleasure in the fleeting ( ... )