Weathering the Weather

Weather

Author: unknown

Whether the weather be fine,
Or whether the weather be not,
Whether the weather be cold,
Or whether the weather be hot,
We'll weather the weather
Whatever the weather,
Whether we like it or not!

I think we used to recite this poem. Or at the very least, we learned this poem when we were very young.

Growing up in a country where there were only two seasons -- dry and wet -- the weather was fairly predictable in spite the incompetence of our weather bureau. It was sunny most of the year but especially hot in the summer months (April, May and June). The rainy season came in July and August. The "ber" months signaled cooler weather as Christmas approached. If we were lucky, it would still be cool in January and February, only to bring more warmth in March as summer returned.

We have moved to a country where there are four seasons -- winter, spring, summer and fall -- and the Sydney Morning Herald Weather report is fairly accurate.

Summer -- December to February

Autumn -- March to May

Winter -- June to August

Spring -- September to November

Fortunately for me, it doesn't snow in winter here in New South Wales because even the chilly days of spring and autumn are enough to get me shivering.

As summer approaches, there are days when it gets so hot. Yesterday, they estimated that the temperature was highest at 41°C; today the expected high was 21°C.

I have yet to get used to these kind of weather swings. I am not complaining, mind you. I am quite happy for these sudden changes of weather, particularly when it goes from hot to cold because the sun out here can be quite harsh. (I think I have gone two shades darker since arriving here.) What eats me is the shift from sunny to rainy.

This sunny day to rainy day shift was particularly difficult for me when we were staying at my brother-in-law's place. Since theirs was a family of seven and ours a family of five, you can imagine the amount of laundry we generated in a week's time and the finite number of uniforms available for the children to wear. This required regular loads of wash to be done in a week.

Naturally I had to fit into our host family's laundry schedule. Mumoffive did their laundry on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. I could do the laundry on any of the other days of the week. Usually, I would do the laundry on Tuesday and either Friday or Sunday (or mini-batches on both days).

Since I had failed to do our wash one Friday, I needed to do at least one load of laundry that Sunday so that the kids would have clean uniforms for the coming week. It had been sunny all week but as luck would have it, the Sydney Morning Herald weather icon showed the sun hiding behind rain clouds that Sunday and the written report indicated that there would be a couple of rain showers in the morning and several in the late afternoon. The projected weather for Monday and Tuesday were both sunny but Monday was not my wash day and Tuesday would be too late.

What was I to do? I had to get those clothes clean.

What else could I do? I started off early Sunday with my first load. When it was done, I hung the clothes on the clothesline even if there was no sun.

Cloudy is not too bad as long as it does not rain, I thought.

While the washing machine was running the second load, it started to drizzle.

Shall I take the clothes out now?

Nah. The weather report did say a COUPLE of rain showers in the morning. Our clothes can take the drizzle.

The rain stopped for a while then resumed. It was still drizzling lightly when the washing machine beeped to indicate the completion of the second load, so I held off hanging the second set of clothes.

When the rain stopped, I decided that the rain shower quota had been fulfilled and the coast was clear. I hung the second set of clothes on the line even if I could see grey clouds all over.

Wrong move! After a few minutes, it started to rain again.

Shall I take the clothes out NOW?

Nah! The rain is bound to stop. This is already more than a COUPLE of showers. They must've put that sun in the weather report for a reason.

I held off retrieving the clothes for a while longer, hoping against hope that the sun would come out. Finally, when I decided that the clothes had had too much rain, I went out and started removing the clothes from the line.

While I was out there, as if to add insult to injury, the skies cleared and the sun came out.

ARRGGHHH!!!!

The sun didn't stay out for too long. It started to drizzle as I pulled off the last set of clothes from the line.

I decided enough is enough, these clothes are staying IN.

The rain clouds were gone by the early afternoon so I hung the clothes back and they eventually got dried. I pulled them off again before the late afternoon showers came.

(Perhaps the fickle weather had had enough fun with me for the day.)

As the poem goes, we'll weather the weather whatever the weather, whether we like it or not. But if you ask me, for rain falling on laundry days? NOT!

For today, it was the sun hiding behind the rain cloud again.

But guess what? I managed to save my laundry just in time.