If there is one underrated pastime in the book of life, it is that of talking about the weather. I could talk about it all day long to anyone who wanted to talk about it. The subject often gets mocked as boring, but to those weather-haters, I say, “Nay! But what could be more fascinating than the weather? Than what’s happening outside our windows?” And while the subject gets short-shaft, evidence (The Weather Channel, cable hurricane coverage) does indeed point to the fact that the weather is something of a national pastime. In fact, every morning, I get up and do my part in participating in this national pastime by checking the weather on Weather.com. I treasure those moments alone with my coffee and news of the weather around the country. I treasure them and then I get dressed.
And yet, sometimes I’m rushed. Sometimes I just need to run out the door and don’t have time to think about a tornado here or a heat wave there or an early frost over there or thunderstorms far afield. No, sometimes I just need to know whether or not to grab an umbrella as I am running out the door. That’s when I turn my browser, with no dawdling along the way, to umbrellatoday.com. My browser then directs me to a simple homepage with the words “Umbrella Today? It’s like totally the simplest weather report ever, Julie” at the top and a space below for you to type in your zip code. I then type in my zip code and within a split second there is either the word “yes” or the word “no” in huge font flashing across the screen.
For example, do I need an umbrella today? Apparently the answer is: “NO.”