What About the Weather

What About the Weather

A Guide to Help Your Friends Understand You Better

As a skier or snowboarder you know that your life is partially controlled by winter weather patterns. When the clouds start building up and large pink splotches are growing on the radar maps, you can feel a corresponding excitement building inside your soul. Here it comes. It’s happening. Another big storm that’s going to dump snow and bury the crusty moguls and hard groomed runs under a blanket of soft, white goodness.
You know that you ought to be able to control your emotions and that feelings of joy or frustration should be separated from the rising and falling of the barometer, but this is one of those things you’ve never managed to outgrow. Skiing is a passion that defines you, and so your identity becomes dependent on delicate white flakes falling from the sky. If the heavens are dry for too long you begin to get irritable and your personality takes a sharper edge, similar to the one required for your boards to grip the hardpacked slopes. But once the storms begin you’re able to view the ups and downs of daily life through rose colored goggles and everything seems sure to have a happy ending.
Obviously the fickleness of Mother Nature can have an effect on your relationships, both casual and more intimate. The worst time is in late autumn when you’re addicted to checking the weather forecast looking for signs of a low pressure system. Friends don’t understand your agitation with a series of mild, sunny days, or why you’re so upset that an early season snowstorm washed out into three days of rain. But then as colleagues are bracing for the incoming blizzard your lighthearted comments and jokes in the face of winter adversity set you apart as a moral boosting cheerleader. You appear to be an eternal optimist who see’s the upside of any number of problems or challenges at work or school.
The affect can be more serious with spouses, kids, and significant others.  If you’re fortunate, the people closest to you share the same enthusiasm for ripping freshies as you do. The downside of this good luck (or good planning), is that the whole house can become uptight and restless if the space between storms stretches out too long. For those who are partnered with a less passionate winter athlete, the unpredictable cycle of anxious fidgeting followed by manic excitement can cause confusion and make them question your hormone balance. Since they don’t realize that the dry sky is the source of your irritability, their feelings may get damaged by your terse responses to questions about weekend activities. When the powder finally dumps down and your mood is jovial again they’re sad to see you leave for the mountains now that things are finally going so well between the two of you.
Storms make you smile. Your homepage is a weather forecast, possibly for a different location and elevation than where you live. Weather related road and school closures are just a signal to leave town earlier so you can get to the mountains. These things are all part of who you are and what keeps you going. Of course this is obvious to you, your ski buddies get it, and when you share this article with other people in your life they may gain a better understanding of the need to give you extra space during a warm spell, and why your mood goes up when the snow’s coming down.