Are your toes wet?

[Vanessa]

Good grief, you guys in the northern most states of america need canoes. Yesterday I had an email from my mum who lives in South Africa saying that it is bitterly cold there and winter has really set in. Today my sister in Bloomington, sent me an email saying that the temperatures there are in the hgh 30's and that you have had so much rain that everywhere is flooding badly. They are cut off from Indianapolis, Nashville, Columbus and Spencer and that the area has been declared a National disaster area with more flooding to come as the rivers have not peaked yet.

Are people in your part of the world as obsessed with talking about the weather as they seem to be here in the UK.

When you live overseas in the southern hemisphere as I have done for most of my life, you take things like sunshine, torrential rain, cold winter days and frost as facts of life and just get on with it. When I came back to the UK 25 years ago, I could not get used to how everyone here (especially the oldies) complain.

You would get stopped in the street by someone saying hello (very friendly here in the villages) and the conversation would go something like this: Hi, how are you doing. God my rheumatism is playing me up, terrible weather we are having. You would probably find that we had just had a week of glorious sunshine.

However, here in the UK, it does not matter what the weather is like, it is always cause for complaint.

Lovely warm sunny days - they complain that it is too hot and all the old heatwave stories come out of mothballs. Oh and drought restrictions get imposed - in one of the wettest countries in the world!!!

Cold and Frosty with snow - too cold - can't wait for summer to come - winters not like they used to be and you get the old tales about how it doesn't snow like it used to (not good enough unless it is covering the door and at least 6 foot deep.

Rain for more than 2 days - total disaster - all you hear is complaints about how all it does is rain and where is the sunshine.

It seems to me, judging by what you guys go through over there, what with tornadoes, flooding, etc, that if some of the whinging poms from this country had to live in the states for a year or two and put up with your kind of weather, they would be only too glad to come back to our very changeable weather system.

Me, I don't mind what the weather is like outside. In fact I love the continual changes in weather, seasons etc. Each facet has it's own beauty.

[angelwithin]

Lovely warm sunny days - they complain that it is too hot and all the old heatwave stories come out of mothballs. Oh and drought restrictions get imposed - in one of the wettest countries in the world!!!

Cold and Frosty with snow - too cold - can't wait for summer to come - winters not like they used to be and you get the old tales about how it doesn't snow like it used to (not good enough unless it is covering the door and at least 6 foot deep.

Rain for more than 2 days - total disaster - all you hear is complaints about how all it does is rain and where is the sunshine.



rofl you forgot

more than 5 days of sunshine - heatwave, hosepipe bans by local authorities, panic bottle water buying and everyone saying ...it's too hot i wish it would rain (except me who prays for the sunshine to last all year ;))


mind you you have to admit...you can get all 4 seasons in one day here in the uk

i've woken to a white bitter frost, temps risen to glorious hot sunshine by noon, gone to the beach, been battered with hailstones the size of golfballs during a thunderstorm in the afternoon, back to sunshine with 20 minuets - gone home had a gale in the evening with 4 inches of rain .....ahhh the weather is so predictable here :D

*goes back to praying for a heatwave to give her customers at work something to moan about http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e102/srangelwithin/smilies/3b.gif

[eye]

My version is-- weather is part of our souls.It is very mystic just like me:D.I love the rain and always did as it brings forth life.I am not much for the heat as I get cranky.I love around 75 with a slight breeaze.We very seldom have a still day.The weather is Gods music so we should all take time to listen to it.AmI too deep for you all today.:D

[O2BNGdHope]

Well, last week we had a tornado that took out 3 trees in my yard, luckily nothing hit the house as I have a BIG yard. Yesterday it was 100 degrees with the heat index over 115. And summer doesn't officially start for 2 more weeks. Whew! Hope this isn't the way the whole summer is going to go.

[Vanessa]

I think I will stick to rainy/snowy/windy/sunny england thanks. Your weather sounds a bit scary to me.

I have to admit the kind of weather I like is when the humidity rises just enough to give thick pea soup fog and you can sit indoors with a blazing log fire going drinking thick soup with noodles in it doing jigsaw puzzles. I don't like it too hot - anything over 22 celcius is too hot for me, don't mind the rain and I love winter days that are very frosty, but with clear watery blue skies.

[jazzieal]

I love rainy days..they make me feel safe in my little world..good days to curl up with a good book..watch an old movie, scrapbook..now I do not like summer..the heat really bothers my breathing so I pretty much stay inside..the humidy is very bad here..I love fall and spring...winter is fine too..I just wish we had some snow occassionally..weather is the weather..you can complain all you like but it wont change a thing LOL

[*eng*]

I like the rain, like the sun with a breeze, hate sunbathing. :)

[Granny]

Love the rain, please send me all the rain you want. Hate, hate, hate sunny California with sunshine 362 days a year!!!!!!

I want to live in England!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :o

[O2BNGdHope]

Obviously all you RAIN lovers don't have naturally curly hair! I dread the slightest mist falling as I know that within the next few minutes my hair will have grown.........much, much wider! As in the old 80's afro style. We're talkin' W-I-D-E as in .......well it's not a pretty picture. Just believe me. You DON'T want to see me after being out in the rain. So can we please not go to a rainy climate for our forum get-together? LOL!

[pkdoll]

I love a good thunderstorm as long as there is no lightening damage. I love the sunshine, but not too hot-right around 75--I love Fall and the turning colors on the trees-you know sweatshirt weather. I love a first snowfall-so pure and sparkly and beautiful. In Wisconsin we get all 4 seasons and I love that!! But-I hate the bitter cold and the hot humid weather. We too can have 85 degree weather one day and be down to zero the next. We can't control the weather so we just deal with it and adapt to whatever we get. As I get older I appreciate the cold winters less and less! And oftentimes wish I lived someplace warmer for the winters. Many Wisconsinites go South for the Winter and come home for Spring, Summer and fall.

[Vanessa]

When I was growing up in Rhodesia, we used to have very hot tropical summers (about 35 Celcius and higher and we would have torrential rainstorms twice a day - lunch time and 4pm). The rain would come down so hard that you had to stop driving until it passed (about 1/2 hour) because you could not see past the end of your bonnet. About an hour later you would swear it had not rained at all, the earth was dry and baked looking again and all you were left with was the horrible humidity. We only really had two seasons there - Summer or Winter. Winter was the best time of the year for me. The temperatures were about 18 deg celcius in the daytime which is lovely, but the night time temperatures could drop down to about -10. Very frosty.

When I moved back to the UK, I fell in love with the changing seasons. There was nothing more beautiful than walking my kids to school in the morning through a hoar frost with the frost standing up on the garden walls like little plates of armour or catching sight of a frozen spider's web twinkling in the first light. And I always find it so amazing being able to watch the progression of green across the space of a few weeks in spring as the first leaves start to emerge on the Hawthorns. The changing colours of autumn are so magical, that is why I put the fairies into the Autumn fairies scrap I did, because autumn always seems such a magical time that it is as if the fairies come along and paint the trees and play with the leaves when the wind blows. Summer to me is just flowers and colour and mostly lazy sunny days.

I suppose not everyone looks at the weather/seasons in the way that I do and that is why I get so irritated by little old biddies who complain about the weather all the time. I just want to pick them up and shake them and say, "For heavens sake, death comes to us all far too soon and you are a long time dead. Open your eyes and take in the beauty around you and be thankful for it. Stop Complaining - you are wasting good energy". Love it or hate it, that's me.

[wolvsie35]

Ok, Anyone from Wisconsin knows the damage we are having right now...Here are some photos that I took yesterday...and we are in for more rain today...UGH...((HUGS)) :D

[Vanessa]

Ok, Anyone from Wisconsin knows the damage we are having right now...Here are some photos that I took yesterday...and we are in for more rain today...UGH...((HUGS)) :DI hope you know how to swim.

[Marion]

We lost an entire lake yesterday!!!!. A dam burst I think and all of Lake Delton drained out. 245 acres of lake, all gone south! Took houses with it. I heard from my aunt in the Netherlands that it was on the news there. Many rivers are over the floodstages. Luckily I live on a hill!

[O2BNGdHope]

Marion, I think they found your lake in Indiana!

[sacannon]

Marion, I think they found your lake in Indiana!

We've had rain here, but not that bad! Thank goodness. All though I have been through a few floods. But the storm yesterday did damage part of my Red Bud Tree in my front yard. One of the limbs was leaning down on my drive way. It is not a big tree, but I like the tree and don't want to lose it. It is only one limb luckily.

I was worried about the tree next door to us. It is big and has a limb hanging over our house. We have been talking about having it cut off but haven't got to it yet (and neither has the neighbor, they should actually be doing it).

As far as weather, I like the changing seasons, but I don't like it hot and humid. Like Jazz, it makes it hard for me to breath due to sinus/alergy problems. I love the high 60;s and low 70's. Spring and Fall are my favorites. Love a summer rain (w/o lightning..like previously mentioned). Love to see fluffy snow, but not heavy stuff you have to shovel or Icy roads to drive on.

[Vanessa]

I can agree with you totally about the humidity Sue. When I lived in Rhodesia, because the days were so very humid, I suffered terribly with Asthma, but always noticed that it was so much better when we went to the coast. I think sea air is generally healthier - could be wrong. And thunder and lightening. When we were little kids, we lived in a house that had a corrugated iron roof. When it started to rain, the rain used to hammer on the roof and the thunder and lightening was absolutely terrifying. If it rained at night, my mum and dad used to end up with all four of us kids in bed with them within 5 seconds of the first thunderclap and two dogs cowering underneath. I still don't like thunderstorms and ever since the day I saw lightning strike through an open window and blast the telephone on a guy's desk, I get paranoid and run around switching off anything electrical that is near a window.

[*Dawny*]

rofl you forgot

more than 5 days of sunshine - heatwave, hosepipe bans by local authorities, panic bottle water buying and everyone saying ...it's too hot i wish it would rain (except me who prays for the sunshine to last all year ;))


mind you you have to admit...you can get all 4 seasons in one day here in the uk

i've woken to a white bitter frost, temps risen to glorious hot sunshine by noon, gone to the beach, been battered with hailstones the size of golfballs during a thunderstorm in the afternoon, back to sunshine with 20 minuets - gone home had a gale in the evening with 4 inches of rain .....ahhh the weather is so predictable here :D

*goes back to praying for a heatwave to give her customers at work something to moan about http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e102/srangelwithin/smilies/3b.gif

Lol I remeber on my wedding day, just 2 years ago and we had rain, snow, hail, and sun all in one day!

[O2BNGdHope]

Well, although I hate having my hair frizz in the rain, I truly love a good thunderstorm. I have a section of my deck that's covered and we go out there and sit and watch the thunderstorm. All the wind and lightening and thunder are exciting to me. When I was a child, to keep us from being afraid of storms, my mother used to play a game with us where we wait for lightening and then see how much we can see before it's dark again. So we blame her. I did the same thing with my children. Then one day when they were at their sitters house, we had a thunderstorm and she took all the children in her care and hid them in the closet. My kids were totally mystified as to why they were hiding. LOL! I couldn't help but laugh at them.

[evee]

Give me the good old British weather any day! Should say Scottish weather as it is quite different down south! I love our climate and would hate to wake up every morning and KNOW it was going to be hot and sunny for the next two months, or wet for the following 8 weeks! Keeps us guessing and gives us something to talk about! Wherever would we be if we couldn't complain about the weather? We'd have nothing to talk about to those strangers that come into our life for a few moments and end up becoming good friends - all because we began with "What awful weather we are having!"
xxoo

[Granny]

Sorry to hear about you bad weather, girls. I saw the news, the houses splitting in two. It's terrible. Please be careful.

[Marion]

More bad weather here in the midwest. Horrid rain, thunderstorms, tornadoes, flooding all over. Pretty soon all of the midwest will be floating to the south!

[pkdoll]

I am with Marion on this. It is terrible again today-more rain-tornado sirens going off-it's terrible. Please pray that we don't float away!!

[O2BNGdHope]

I'm beginning to think the title of this thread should be "Are your ears wet yet?" All of the major catastrophes happening right now are just unbelievable. Rain and tornados in the midwest and fires again in California. When does it stop?

[Granny]

The day after the day before!!!

:eek:

[RachellIowa]

ok we got sun shine today, but the river is rising and the sand bags are put in place, he have built durt walls around our water plant here in ottumwa iowa and several places where they might be needed we have a trailer court on the south end of town that is flooded and last night my daughter's place she is staying at had the water from the river finding their back door, but the city now has beenable to get that down and have built a levee wall not more than 500ft from the front door, only hope it holds, several people had to leave there homes in the low lying areas, the plant that hubby is at is preparing for the flood as they are just across the hyway from the river,and in 1993 the parking lot got flooded,they are saying it should be worse this time, we had some as they call it minor flooding last year in which the water had to be shut off for a few days, will be going out to get some pic's tommorrow as i have some from the last one some where I'll have to look them up, I won't be able to get to my parents farm as the creeks there are like raging rivers. but I always go and see how bad it is, several farmers will be hurting as the feilds some have as much as1 to 5 feet of water some you can't even tell they were there looks like a very big lake,
I just thank god that I like on a hill and have already laid in any supplies that might be needed, My prayers for those who are not and those who are going to be as we know for sure losing so much as the flooding hits harder and for those down river from us. 88 counties are now declared desaster ares out99. it will get worse before it gets better. i have found three of the pictures from sept. 2007 couldn't get to the farm. and this is usually a creek with only about a foot of water if even that most of the time. :(

[CrystalInMinn]

Minn here... Rochester...we had a major flood in '78 and then the city bought a ton of property and rebuilt the water system here for flood control. So far so good, some minor flooding and in the basements but so far so good. they had to evacuate a few neighborhoods last summer a couple times. rain rain go away...:eek: I guess the fields are so bad that food prices are going to go through the roof!

[Vanessa]

Good grief you are all having a very wet summer already. People tend to forget how powerful a force and how destructive water can be. I hope this lot doesn't wend its way across the ocean again. Some of last summer's flood victims are still living in temporary shelters here waiting for their homes to be re-done.

[Marion]

Our river in Janesville is not suppose to crest until tuesday. It broke a record. The Rock river runs right through downtown Janesville and businesses downtown have been Sandbagging for days. But today is sunny, I hope it stays that way and lets the water go down a bit. It will take a while for all of this to get better. As bad as it is here, other cities are far worse off then we are. My prayers are with you all!

[pkdoll]

This flooding is terrible. I have family in Iowa and things are terrible there, as well as places here. We have been very fortunate to have missed a lot of the flooding, but Sheboygan (where Wolvsie lives) has had some street flooding as well as other counties-but the worst hit is the western part of the state by Wisconsin Dells. I pray that the rain will stop and give people a chance to recuperate.