Weather

We were Gilmored into Homeland, the first series. I think the more accurate phrase would be chose to be Gilmored. What is Gilmored? Gilmored is how my daughters and I explain watching a whole series in one day or for an extended stretch of time. The first time we did this was when one of Mellie's friends lent us her seven season series of The Gilmore Girls. First just the initial year, then it grew and grew. We loved the Gilmore Girls. Connecticut living was never like that for me, yet, I enjoyed thinking of my years there while I watched it.
We watched the first season of Homeland the other day. I noticed the weather. I noticed the inconsistencies in the weather. The characters would be in winter clothes, then the next scene, the next day, the leaves would be full. Weather is very important to me. As I write, I am aware of weather in my story. Weather is a character in my story. So I noticed the background. I think most of it was filmed in late fall with some fall colors starting. Weather did not play a part of the story.
I noticed the filming because of my daughter's early interest in film directing. We watched all the commentaries, making of the movies or TV shows, and read some, too. I had also been in one commercial for my old company and had been amazed at the screens they used to filter the sunshine.
I think some times I should have been a meteorologist. I had an interest in junior high, with the cute weather man on WYTV and my ninth grade science teacher. I get tingly now with weather reports, when monster weather is approaching our area (or not, in so many instances). I video taped all the Hurricane Gloria news when I lived through her in Connecticut.
I will blame all health and mental ailments on weather. My patients or friends complain of sore joints, I'll blame the fall in the barometer.  Noticing lack of sunshine in your soul, well, no sustained sunshine in the natural sphere. Tell me you have lack of freshness in your mind, "Have you been outside lately for a stroll?" I'll ask.
Weather inspires me. Country starts with an approaching storm, with low hanging clouds appearing as menacing faces. Sunrises and sunsets fill my inner being with joy. I love to awaken the dawn, as the psalmist says. I may lately, go right back to bed, but I miss seeing the daybreak on a regular basis with working afternoon turn.
Weather sets a mood, too. As I watched, Saving Mr. Banks with abundant sunshine, the mood created was happy in the Disneyland scenes. I could feel the heat of the Australia weather, too, with too much sunshine and the oppressiveness of disappointment in childhood. Both were filmed in southern California, but the way they filmed it, I could feel the difference in the sunshine.
Jesus also talked about the weather. He pointed out that they were all predictors of the future weather, yet the religious leaders couldn't see the spiritual forecast. And in Romans, Paul writes how all creation is groaning to be set free from the curse.
The reader of my stories will notice my attention to weather, and the sky. Weather is a character as much as a human. Storms rolling in foreshadow. The sunsets I enjoy writing about. Early morning sounds are some of my favorite descriptions. I do notice the weather, so don't tell me, we are not having a winter or a summer, when it is not even that season, yet. I will regale you with the history I remember, like forsythia blooming in December of 2001 or the violets I saw two years in a row in October and November. I'll tell you about the frigid weather when I was in tenth grade, 1977 and the next years, 1978 and 1979.  I thought today of the January thaw in 1974, when my girlfriend and I could sit by Hogback Creek in our sweaters because it was seventy five degrees and sunny. I had a long brown coat sweater. I'll be polite, though. I notice weather and I love it.