At my place of employment (Starbucks) one thing we must do is constantly chat it up with customers. Any time people are waiting for their drinks we have to think of something fun and exciting to talk about. Of course 90% of the time we don't think of anything original so we resort to the same old drab "small talk" conversations that millions of people must endure daily. For some reason, both the customers and employees tolerate this and we even act as though it is an interesting, useful conversation we are having. We try to pretend this is important dialogue, when of course everyone involved in the conversation knows this isn't true.
Naturally, one of the main topics that is brought up is weather. Sometimes we're able to steer clear from this drab subject, for example Griffey's return to Seattle, triggered many conversations and of course Obama's victory made for weeks of interesting conversation, but the excitement always wears off, reality and routine hits us once again and conversation would inevitably shift back to weather. Weather...a topic people have been discussing for ages and will continue to focus on, regardless of the fact that these conversations get us nowhere. Weather is simply out there, in the sky and in the air, we have no impact on it (aside from global warming of course) and it's one of the most temporary things I can think of. It affects us for one day only and then we move on, hoping for more sunshine and a nice breeze come tomorrow.
One can imagine my excitement when I must talk about this drab topic over and over all day long.
"Well it looks like a nice day out, better than yesterday at least."
"Yes sir this is the perfect weather because it's nice enough to take care of your lawn, but still chilly enough that you have an excuse to put it off, if you don't feel like doing it."
"You enjoying the sunshine?"
Somehow I always end up asking people if they are enjoying the sunshine. This should be a given, people generally enjoy the sunshine, but for some reason when the sun is out everyone wants to talk about it. Someone will be out driving around with the top down, sunglasses on, blasting music, and I still ask them if they're enjoying the sunshine. The weird thing is people love this question. They love to be asked if they are enjoying the sunshine because then they get to point out their topless car and give an enthusiastic head nod accompanied with a "Yep, I'm out for a drive!"
Everyone is clearly happy when the sun is out, but what about when it's gloomy? I find it funny that when it's rainy or cold out in May, people complain that the weather is acting weird, constantly changing from day to day. People seem to forget that this is normal Seattle spring weather! It changes all the time. Sometimes the days are nice, sometimes lousy, and we Seattle residents simply have to take what we can get.
This is Seattle for you: nice summers and shifting, unpredictable springs. Now that I think about it, even the summers here are unpredictable. Sometimes they're just as rainy and cold as the spring, as if Mother Nature completely forgot about July and August, keeping us in an endless onslaught of April showers and clouds. If one must complain about rainy weather in spring, go ahead and complain, but there is no reason to call it strange. We aren't in the Caribbean and this isn't Southern California. If it was, I wouldn't be writing this article, I'd be at Disneyland. In the end, the best decision we can all make is to simply stop discussing weather. The elements will do what they please, sometimes the sun will shine and the sprinklers will come out. Other times the temperature will sink down, making people wish they had brought along that extra hoody.
It's my opinion that we should simply allow nature to take its course and move onto discussing more important issues at hand, like where the best dog parks are and how many calories are in a grande frappucino.