I grew up in windy country. Winds blowing down the east slope of the Rocky Mountains are funneled into a relatively narrow channel between the Absaroka and Crazy Mountains and my hometown is right in the middle of that channel. We endured a lot of jokes about the wind that blew through our town. We learned to live with the wind and to tie things down so that they wouldn’t blow away.

In addition to wind, we had some cold temperatures in the winter and occasionally enough snow for a really good blizzard. The cold and the wind can be a dangerous combination and we learned to dress with enough layers to protect ourselves. I delivered newspapers as a young teen and so had to work outside every day. I had a good collection of gloves, hats, scarves and face masks as well as insulated pants and a good parka.

I lived in the Dakotas for much of my adult life and my winter survival skills were helpful on several occasions. I still have a really good winter parka, insulated coveralls, warm boots, hats and mittens even though I now live in a place where I don’t need all of my winter gear.

I have not, however, ever lived in a region where hurricanes pass by and tropical storms come ashore bringing wind and rain. So I didn’t know quite what to expect when the weather forecasters warned that “Potential Tropical Storm Helene” is nearing landfall and its path is headed in our direction. Our daughter and her family live near the center of South Carolina, a couple of hours from the coast, so that don’t worry about tropical storms the way people who live on the coast need to.

What I do know is that our daughter isn’t concerned. She has lived here for a little over four years and she has seen a few hurricanes and tropical storms. What happens here where she lives is mostly that a lot of rain falls. These storms can bring torrential rainfall and the storm sewers in the community are set up to handle that rain. Our daughter is slightly annoyed that people are so quick to cancel various events when a storm threatens. She pointed out, rightly, that there was nothing other than a little wind during the time that her son would have had soccer practice had they not cancelled the practice in anticipation of the coming storm.

The wind did blow a little, but not as much as I have seen in other places where i live. It wasn’t breaking the branches off of the trees or downing power lines. And it has been raining off and on through the night. Rain is forecast for the day here.

The one upside is that there is a small leak in the roof of their garden shed and we haven’t been able to pinpoint the problem. Today we’ll get a chance to look at it in the rain and perhaps figure out what needs to be done to make the shed completely water tight once again. On the other hand, water leaks can be tricky and it is also possible that I won’t be able to figure out what is going on even if I do get the opportunity to see the leak with my own eyes.

It may just be a symptom of growing older, but it seems to me like people are quicker to cancel events and hunker down in the face of a little bit of weather. I can’t remember ever having a snow day when I was in elementary school. There were days when the school busses didn’t run. If they left kids in town, country kids had to have snow homes where they would go. Most went to relatives, but there were a couple who came to our house. That happened a few times, but not often. People simple went out and got work done in harsh weather. Our grandchildren in Washington, in contrast, will have a snow day whenever any snow falls. In recent years the school year has been extended far into June just to make up all of the snow days.

I wonder if tropical storms are similar for the old timers in this community. After all it isn’t a hurricane. It isn’t even a tropical storm. The storm has been described by the forecasters as a potential tropical storm. I guess that means that the storm might intensify. Then again, I’m a newcomer around here so I don’t know what a potential storm involves. I guess I’ll find out.

Tropical storm warnings have been issued all along the coast extending up into North Carolina as well. The storm is expected to move on out of state later today. So far, I guess, I’m not particularly impressed.

What is interesting to me is that I am once again devoting a journal entry to the weather. There was a time, early in my journaling when I worried that I wrote about cats too often. Now we no longer have cats and I’ve moved on to other subjects, but throughout the entire time that I have been posting my journal online, I have posted a lot of entries about the weather. It is indeed possible that the weather is my most frequent topic.

I had a teacher who I admired a great deal who said he didn’t have time for small talk. At that time he was around the age that I am now. He said that his time was short and he didn’t want to waste it talking small talk. And for him, the weather was a “small talk” topic. I tried to avoid such subjects when I was with him and went straight to discussing theology and meaning. But I had to be very attentive in order to do that. Talking about the weather comes naturally to me. I grew up around farmers and ranchers for whom the weather was a critical topic for their lives and work.

I really don’t know much about tropical storms, or even potential tropical storms, but today I hope I’ll gain a bit of experience. It might even appear as the topic of a conversation some time in the future. I guess I still have some time in my life for small talk.