Our weather in my corner of PA has been rather fickle this week. Deep cold, snow and sleety rain, clouds, clear skies, sun, grey skies. The only thing we didn’t get was unseasonable heat. l fell asleep a couple of nights listening to heavy winds or rain hitting the house. I kind of enjoy that. I like weather. I like changes in the weather. My old bones don’t always enjoy the day or two before the weather changes. I could do better weather forecasting than a lot of the professionals do 🙂
Several years ago, Terry installed central air conditioning into our little rancher. It makes the summers bearable. We get lots of humidity here, and that really wreaks havoc on my joints. Humidity is a booger on other levels, as well, but since we have central air I’m not fighting the mildew at all. So thankful for that!
We have an oil-burning stove in our living room that heats our main living areas quite well. It’s inexpensive—well, it WAS inexpensive before someone closed down our domestic oil production. But it’s still less expensive than electricity, which is our other option. We like sleeping in a colder room, but Terry got me an electric mattress pad the heats my bed up until it’s just right.
Thinking about all this has made me realize how much we take for granted here in the States. We don’t tolerate extreme heat or cold, because we have the technology to have the inside temperature just about the same all year ’round. We sleep well in our comfortable beds, and we don’t have to spend a lot of time outdoors when it’s drippy and miserable. Well, most of us don’t. It’s during this time of year that I most appreciate the folks who take care of our roads, our electricity lines, our water. They’re often out there in the most miserable weather, which of course is when things are more likely to break down.
Not everyone has it as good as we do, though, and I think about the homeless during this time of year. Yes, there are shelters, but shelters aren’t always very sheltering.
I don’t really have a specific point for this post, I guess. Maybe it should be just to appreciate what we have, to be thankful we live in a country where water is abundant, where we can usually meet the basic needs of life.
I know one thing I can look forward to: The weather in heaven will be perfect, all the time! That’s something to hold onto when it gets bad down here 🙂
Linda's Bible Study 