March 28, 2024

Dear weather: Let me do my job

I hate the weather.

Not all weather, mind you. I am not irrational by any means. I understand the necessities of the seasons, that we need rain, sleet, snow and sun. It’s a sign that the world keeps turning, that things are moving along the way they should but. But this weather, I despise.

Man likes to believe we have this unspoken agreement with Mother Nature. We like to believe the men who drew up our calendar negotiated, in a way, with the seasons. I used to believe this as well. Oh, how naïve we all are to the date on the calendar. Those 12 pieces of papers that suggest a point in time mean absolutely nothing to the seasons, clearly. Just take a look out the window.

The weather is the source, but it is what the weather brings along with it that I really despise. I could deal with rain and sleet in April if my job wasn’t contingent upon having some sort of tolerable climate. I know this is a rarity in most peoples’ lives (at least where I come from), but I actually like my job. Well, most aspects of it I like. It’s not that so much even. It’s more that I like being able to do my job.

When you see weather such as this — look out the window, I’ll wait — it means there will be no golf, no tennis, no track, not even soccer that day. This is what puts me at odds with the weather. It is April 18, and I have yet to be able to cover a golf match. And that fact frustrates me to no end.

Some of this is self-inflicted, but the weather has played such a crucial role, that I have no choice but to declare it a mortal enemy. Three weeks ago I had my second ACL reconstruction. It has been a frustrating experience working from home most of the time, but it was an inevitable situation that I knew, at some point, I would have to deal with. What I didn’t expect was that when I returned to work in mid-April that the gods would look down and say, “Not so fast there, little fella.”

Although I’m in a fair amount of discomfort still, I would like to be able to watch some live sports. I want to do my job, what I’m passionate about. I want to cover golf. It is the purest game in the world. Man with stick puts ball in hole. It doesn’t get much more basic than that, but there are intricacies and nuances that I crave in the worst way. Watching the game on TV is nothing more than a painful tease, falling well short of being there in person. The peacefulness of the game is one of my favorite things in the world. And I have not been able to get one second of it despite the fact that I turned my clock forward what seems like forever ago.

I know this weather will pass, and we will all move on with our lives. Weather does provide a talking point for most of us. It’s one of the things that allow us to sympathize with strangers. We all talk about how bad or good the weather is that day. Okay, that’s about all the positives I can conjuror up.

Nobody likes this weather, and this is my plea for it to cease and desist with some immediacy. I think I can speak for us here at the NDN sports department and all of the editorial staff for that matter when I say, “rain rain go away, come again when sports move indoors.”