Geoff Duncan

Now featuring the comedic stylings of the National Weather Service!

I feel bad for people who try to predict the weather. Here around Seattle, this time of year, their job should be easy: highs between 50° and 55° F, lows between 40° and 45° F; overcast with showers and locally heavy rain. Easy. And that's exactly what the weather service has been predicting (and continues to predict!) for the area for the last week.

Except reality has intervened. It's 60° and sunny. There are more men in their mid-50s driving their red convertibles with the tops down on the area's streets than ought to be legal in any state, let alone a municipality. People are out in skimpy running outfits and sunglasses. Red-tailed hawks are carrying off rodents by the thousands. The sky is a deep, rich, cloudless blue overhead (OK, there are some clouds over by the Cascades), my cacti are sprouting shoots madly, and my cats are getting no sleep because they've got their eyes glued to the bird feeders 10 hours a day.