The Weather #$%&!

Unfortunately, most of us do not have 100% flexibility with our time, we make commitments, or our place of work expects us to show up. When I see a day or two that looks like it might be “free” I start to think about heading out on the boat. First, “free” means I can clear the day with a few emails/phone calls. Then I check with my wife on her schedule and see if she can clear some space. If both those things happen, then I check the weather. Not that I need perfect weather, but if we are just headed out for a short time it might as well be decent weather. If the weather is not great, we might decide to keep our noses to the grindstone so that we will be able to clear some time in the future. For the purist that says boating in the rain is just as good as boating in the sun, I salute you. I have spent enough of my life in rain gear or shuffling work crews around rainy weather to have a less enthusiastic response. The problem with the weather is that it is so dang fickle, especially in the spring. Case in point, last mid-April, early in the week, the weather on Saturday was looking sunny and calm so we did the schedule clearing thing. For the following four days the forecast flipped back and forth from sun to rain to wind to some combination of the three. Saturday morning came and the forecast for the day did not look good and we finally decided not to go out. Instead we went down to the boat and finished up some spring chores. By mid-morning it was windless, sunny and warm, and we pretended to not be irritated at our incorrect decision to stay at the dock. By early afternoon the clouds came in, the wind started howling, the rain began, and we smiled self-satisfied smiles having made the right choice after all! What did we learn from this? Not a dang thing other than the Weather likes yanking our chain!