'...but no one does anything about it.'

The weather often is the source for news coverage, though there is very little anyone can do to "fix" excessive heat or cold or rain or snow or wind... "Everybody talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it."

We are obsessed with "record heat," for instance, even if the new record is simply one degree warmer than the previous high on a particular day. It doesn't really matter if the location of the temperature measurement is far from a location, as with Denver, where the official recordings of temperature and precipitation come from DIA, which is nearly 20 miles from downtown (and all that cement).

The good news about weather is that it is one of the last safe conversation topics in America. "Hot enough for ya?"

There's an article in today's Washington Post that focuses on the Dust Bowl of the 1930s and how temperatures were even higher than our climate change heat during that extreme weather event. One reason many states in the Plains have NOT recorded a new record high in over 80 years is that poor farming techniques and water management produced very low humidity... leading to temperatures quickly rising and falling. 

Humans are comfortable in a rather small range of temperatures -- we are heading to San Diego later this week and the forecast is for highs in the low 70s and lows in the mid-60s. For many of us, those are ideal temperatures, which accounts for so many people eagerly moving to southern California if they can afford it. 

Some decent rain arrived in Highlands Ranch yesterday afternoon and the temperatures plunged from 90 to the mid-60s very quickly. I was sitting on the covered patio during this little storm and had to force myself to not retreat inside after a few minutes. I was just so "cold," all of a sudden.

I know. What a wimp. 

Most comparisons are relative in nature, from temps to finances to parenting to world affairs. 

Even K-12 education feels this urge to compare and contrast, and thus we get stories from the past that have little factual support. You know, like how moms sent Billy and Susie off to school without a single worry that anything would happen to them along that mile-long walk. Or how kids back then were so much more respectful, or how we found joy in just four TV channels.

Ah, for the good ol' days.

But please, let's set a cut-off for just how "old" those days can be. I vote for sometime AFTER the Dust Bowl.