What Can You Do About the Weather?

Dearest Rachel –

I’m pretty sure he wasn’t the first one to say it, but Mark Twain might have at least been responsible for popularizing the saying that “Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.” To be sure, it isn’t as if there’s a whole lot one can do about it; apart from the fact that we can much better predict what’s coming our way these days (well, sometimes, anyway), all that humanity can do is either hunker down and brace for what’s coming, or thumb our noses at Mother Nature and carry on.

So it was with last night at Sparks. I don’t know how it happens, but it seems like the ‘beach party’ theme night always seems to coincide with the coldest Monday of the year (although I suppose, when it’s almost always scheduled in the middle of January, it shouldn’t come as any great surprise).

I’m sure you remember what it was like, even as you would inevitably don a bathing suit underneath your clothes, and strip down to it when we would arrive and get set up at church for the club activities – it was still a chilly proposition.

I’m not gonna lie, honey, given the subzero temperatures that we’ve been subject to since Saturday (and it seems we’ll be dealing with for at least another day or two), I was half expecting them to cancel club last night. As it happens, it appears that Jenn and Joanna will get the day off today, or at least, what work they need to do for the school they work at will be done over Zoom rather than having to actually go in.

But as of mid-afternoon yesterday, after some consultation between the leaders and the church staff, it was relayed to us that everything was still on for the night, and we’d best figure out how to prepare for the night, both in terms of the theme as well as the reality.

Now, given my position handing attendance (albeit in a very diminished capacity) and awards, it doesn’t matter as much, since I’m upstairs the whole time and not directly dealing with the kids as often as the rest of the team. Even Daniel spends more time with kids, as he’s working with them on the game floor – as well as making sure they’re undisturbed if they should need to use the washroom. So I’m not as obliged as most to dress up in conformance with the theme.

Indeed, I probably could have stood to put on another layer or two; despite being on the top floor of the building the whole time – bearing in mind the fact that heat rises – it was still cold enough that I wished I could keep my gloves on while I typed information into the computer. And you might notice from the picture above, I’ve got at least three layers visible – the tropical shirt, the ‘Bridge’ T-shirt and a sweatshirt – with a fourth layer (yet another T-shirt) below all that, none of which was quite sufficient to keep out the cold. All I could do, especially during the times when I was the only one in the room, was to keep moving.

Just in time, too, as several kids that had been there for their first time last week completed their entrance tests last night, so I needed those together to present to them. So at least the time spent active on busywork to keep warm wasn’t a waste, in any sense of the term. And they weren’t the only kids earning awards, either; I think I gave out as many as I did last week, in fact, not counting the two new clubbers.

So, as you might guess, we weren’t diminished all that much by the cold; the kids wanted to be there, and so we were, regardless of the weather. Imagine what it’s going to be like next week, when we supposedly put even freezing temperatures behind us for a few days.

And on those pleasant thoughts (both the forecast warming and the possible increase in attendance), keep an eye on us, honey, and wish us luck. We’re going to need it.