Weather Trolls

It's a funny thing, this canceling of winter. For once, I believe Vermonters are almost not noticing.

Usually, our weather is the one reliable topic of conversation as we wend our ways through our days.

"Man, it's hot out there."

Or "Do you believe that ice?"

Or "If I have to shovel one more time, my arms will fall off!"

You heard that last one a whole lot last winter when we got hit with storm after storm after storm. By early February, the entire population of the Upper Valley looked as though it had been sleep deprived since Christmas.

But this year, we're not talking about the weather. It reminds me of when the Red Sox were competing (for the first time in living memory) for the World Series title, and this whole area went into superstition mode. We ate the same cereal every morning, put our shoes on the same way, sat in the same chair to listen to the games. Or didn't listen to any games at all because we didn't listen to the first one, and, well, if we changed anything, the Sox would lose again.

So talking about the weather--the complete lack of snow and no driving cold--has become almost verboten. After what we lived through in 2011, no one wants to draw the attention of the weather trolls to our little corner of the world.