The Weather is a Cruel Mistress
Okay, maybe it's because I haven't had AC for
the past week and a
half, but I've
begun to really notice how the weather works around campus. We've got
some varied
weather here at KU. It goes from hot to cold at the drop of a hat.
Why must Mother Nature continue to mess with
our heads? She’s
got her evil
child, el Nino, working night and day across the nation (which, I’m
sure, violates more
than a few child labor laws) to screw with our weather patterns.
El Nino, being a new weather system, takes its
time much like
any young child.
We’ve been hearing about this kid since September of last year, and
it’s only now that it
finally gets around to bothering us.
However, now, as we are wanting nice,
consistent weather, the
bastard child has
begun to wreak havok upon the collective psyche of the KU student body:
The weather starts out cold and gloomy, or cold and sunny, or
rainy and gloomy,
so on and so forth, and continues that way for several days. Then,
as if by magic, it all
goes away overnight and the campus awakens to a beautiful (almost
cliched)
spring day.
We all go around, commenting on the lovely weather we’re having and
naysaying the
forecaster’s predictions for the next day- “Temporary my butt! It can’t
go away! He’s
only a scientist with years of training and experience. What the hell
could he possibly
know?”
Then, the very next day, the evil returns- but
bit by bit. It
gets a little windy, then
the clouds begin to roll in, with the temperature dropping all
the while. Slowly but
surely, we go right back to that lousy weather we said couldn’t
possibly
return.
The weather stays evil for several days, then the pattern repeats.
Cunning. So
cunning and evil, that el Nino seems to be a villian that Christopher
Walken would play
in an instant.
And it is all the more evil by the wind- the
howling, screeching,
never-ceasing
wind that makes you want to take to the Campanile with a deer rifle-
oops. Got a little
carried away.
But the wind is always noticed here at KU. Why? Because we’re
on a hill,
surrounded by the plains. Wind goes to us like a tornado to a trailer
park. It’s like we
have a huge sign saying, “Kick me, blow me away, make it next to
impossible
to get my
cigarette lit.”
Oh, well. Just remember- el Nino is a child.
And kids grow up
so fast these days,
that soon he’ll stop his rambunctious ways to go sulk in his room,
wearing all black, and
*really* understanding the lyrics to “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”