9. Wind: When the wind is too strong you may hear people talking about what is the deal with this wind? Wind storms can tear down fences and produce other property damage. In general the stronger the wind the more the complaints. The wind can also kick up dust and make driving and walking more difficult. Wind also makes cold air feel colder. You may here people say something to the effect: The weather would not be so bad if the wind was not blowing. Also the most violent wind on earth is the tornado and we know how unpleasant they are.

8. Dirty air: The sight of the brown ozone and pollution cloud over an urbanized area can be unhappy to see. Having to breath that air is unpleasant. It can make people feel guilty when they have to use gas powered equipment such as a lawn mover or vehicle. Each person adds a little to that dirty brown cloud hovering over the city. It can be downright depressing.

7. Humidity: You may hear something to the effect that it is not the heat but the humidity. The humidity can make the air feel like it is hard to breath. It makes you feel hotter since perspiration does not evaporate as quickly.

6. Hurricanes: Pick a infamous hurricane from the past and you will find some people still complaining about it and blaming problems on it. You may hear something like if only that hurricane did not hit. Hurricanes can ruin lives. They combine several things people complain about: rain, wind, flooding.

5. Ice: It makes driving a nightmare. It causes damage. If the electricity goes out it can be very unpleasant. Some people may panic and buy weeks of supplies at the food store. It makes for a great inconvenience that people love to complain about.

4. Drought: When it is too dry the vegetation does not look as pretty. Having to ration water and having to figure out how to get everything watered can be a problem. As the drought continues further people continue to get more irritable. You will hear murmurings of when is it freaking going to rain? Combined with very hot weather it can really get people complaining.

3. Too hot or too cold: Some big complaints come from these extreme temperature events. Either one sends the utility bills through the roof. The conditions outside can not be enjoyed. When it is too hot you start sweating right away and if it is too cold it can take half an hour to dress for it properly. When it is too hot being too cold sounds so great and vice versa. On a very hot day you may hear someone say getting into the car is like getting into an oven and my back gets sweaty.

2. El Nino: This has been blamed for just about everything. No matter what weather is occurring some people will claim it has to have some relation to El Nino. There has to be something to blame this unpleasant weather on. Since El Nino controls the weather patterns it must be the cause of all weather problems. If only El Nino would listen to our problems and stop the ill impacts on the weather.

1. Global warming: Any bad weather will sometimes get blamed on global warming. Whether it be too much or too little rain or too hot weather. You may hear something to the effect that humans are destroying the earth and a great climatic disaster will occur. It gets people talking and it can be popular to complain about. A new ice age or the planet burning up are complained about and global warming is blamed.

Fair enough. But apparently when it comes to the weather, some people will never be happy. The first half of this summer, was cooler, and wetter, than normal. Not great of you wanted to go swimming, or even walk around outside, and many people felt the need to tell me how much the weather stunk…

Now we are in the middle of a mini heat wave, and some of the SAME people, are telling me its too hot. AAAAAAHHHH
Human conversation, the tinkling of ice in a glass, a distant murmur and a rasp of laughter. A dog pops its head up from behind the porch rail, sees yours and a great show of territorial barking ensues. Then perhaps you and the people on the porch strike up a paragraph or two of small talk, maybe about how absurd your dogs are, you standing there with a plastic bag full of its poop in your hand, and then you wave each other amicably on your respective ways.

I’m finding myself out on my own front porch in this weather. It’s cooler.

There’s the shade of the tree. A friend was visiting so I said, “Let’s go out and complain about the weather.” So we sat on the porch around the wicker table, had a cold beer — oh, maybe two.

We could complain about the weather for only so long, so we got talking about anything and everything. I mused about how painful it is to discover that there’s a hole in your oven mitt. And how the thought crossed my mind that one of my children put it there for sending her to her room. Nah.

A jogger waved. Neighbours stopped, chatted, moved on. An ice cream truck drove by. It was like watching the world from the prow of a ship.