WEATHER

After living on island for nearly two years, I have grown to appreciate the significance of weather conditions.  We’ve endured a barrage of heavy rainstorms, tropical storms, tropical waves, and the most all-encompassing heat I’ve ever known.  My wife, Amy, is also obsessed with weather (way more than I).  She checks the National Hurricane Center website multiple times a day during hurricane season and follows the satellite images and projected weather paths like a professional meteorologist. 

Actually, she is probably more skilled than most weatherman down here.  For instance, one station’s forecast features a guy with a large white handlebar mustache waved into two sharp points (see for yourself, www.wsvi.tv).  I suspect the guy has never used (or even seen) a computer. Thus, it is no surprise that instead of using a sophisticated graphic, he points to a large paper map that looks like it was purchased from an army surplus store 25 years ago.  Using a large pointer stick, he points to the little dots that represent the islands and waves his stick around the ocean areas that could get stormy.  One might think that predicting weather on a tropical island is easy and, probably, a coveted position among weathermen.  After all --- how hard could it be to predict sun and high temperatures.  But, surprisingly, its not that easy.  Amy and I have seen the forecast for sun, packed our bags for the beach, and then seen ominous black clouds and lightning in the distant ocean.  So, my own system for predicting weather is often the best basis:  (a) look out into the ocean horizon and see if it “looks” good or bad;  (b) go outside and see if there are clouds, rain, or sun.  In my opinion, this system is about as reliable as the weatherman because it ensures a fairly reliable indication of what one should do.  For longer term, I simply ask Amy (since she already has memorized the hurricane and satellite images).

Of all the weather conditions, heat is the one about which I know the most.  The tropical heat cascades itself into all of the island.  Relentlessly baking my body with its solar energy, the heat prompts more sweat than I know imaginable.  As I type right now, my arms are moist with sweat, my t-shirt is stuck to my body, and I feel hot all over.  Although we have air conditioning (wall units, not central AC), it is a meager opponent to the champion that is HEAT.  I crave the cool flow of air in a mosquito and lizard-free home that doesn’t feel like a dutch oven.  I miss the feel of bed sheets that do not cling to my sweat-drenched body and the feel of a pillow that is not moistened by my own sweat.  People often offer solutions:  put ice in your bed, get more fans, etc.  But, are these really solutions?  Indeed, such ideas sound like ideas that simply replace one problem with another. 

To end on a positive thought, even though it is unabashedly hot, I am thankful that I am alive and well.  Also, this island is a lot better than other hot places I could be stuck (i.e. Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan) and cold ones too (i.e. Siberia).  So, to keep on that positive outlook, I am going to keep looking into the blue expanse of ocean and enjoying those things that keep me cool.