Born to Laugh at Tornadoes
Posted on | August 30, 2005 at 11:26 am | 5 Comments
My sympathy goes out to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. I wouldn’t wish that kind of devastation on anyone. I hope the rebuilding of lives and property is not too long or painful.
I don’t want this to sound insensitive or like gloating, but it’s at times like this that I feel really blessed to be living in the area of the country that I do. For the most part, the only natural disasters we have to worry about in the Denver area are blizzards, hailstorms, and windstorms. And those mostly involve damage to property and are not usually life-threatening.
We’ve had the occasional earthquake, but never one strong enough for me to feel in the 35 years I’ve been living in the area. Tornadoes rarely form this close to the mountains/foothills. I grew up in Illinois and had a stark fear of tornados as a kid. The killer Belvidere Tornado came pretty close to where we were living. I still remember touring the devastation after the storm. Seeing the overturned cars and the damage to buildings had a large effect on my young mind. These days, I gawk at the occasional funnel cloud in the far distance, but I don’t feel that sense of childlike terror. Maybe I’ve become too complacent.
The sun is out over 300 days a year around here, and extreme temperatures don’t usually last for more than a few days. Yeah, it does tend to get really cold for a month or two in the winter and really hot for awhile in the summer, but I actually like living somewhere where there is a variance like that. As I’ve said before, I don’t think I could live anywhere where it didn’t ever snow, despite the problems snow has caused me in the past. Sure, there’s not a lot in the way of big bodies of water nearby, so lounging on a beach and water sports are mostly out. But then again, there’s no humidity. Which means those hot days of summer usually don’t seem that hot compared to other parts of the country I’ve visited, even when it gets into the upper 90s and beyond. And for those into outdoor recreation, there’s a lot to do in the mountains to make up for not having an ocean nearby. Colorado is still the fittest state in the nation.
So, here’s to appreciating what you’ve got???
Latre.
Comments
5 Responses to “Born to Laugh at Tornadoes”
August 30th, 2005 @ 2:17 pm
That whole post was just cruelty aimed directly at me, if anyone was wondering…
August 30th, 2005 @ 2:43 pm
Oh, are you still in Southern California? Earthquake ain’t got ya yet? Mudslides?
August 30th, 2005 @ 5:42 pm
Heat, humidity, smog, all-pervasive urine smells and highway shootings. Plus no good pizza. Aside from that, life is very good.
September 1st, 2005 @ 2:19 pm
Flasshe, more than once in the past few days have I mused that although life in NYC is chronically stressful, loud, dirty, demoralizing, competitive, depressing, overstimulating, a favorite terrorist target, and really expensive, at least we have mild weather. Every couple of years a snowstorm or heatwave, no biggie. It’s a good deal, over all. I’m not kidding.
September 1st, 2005 @ 9:18 pm
Okay, I’ll try to keep that in mind the next time the top national news story is the latest weather disturbance in NYC…