They say bad things usually come in threes.
I guess that goes for the weather as well.
We survived three successive days of late-afternoons storms that raked across the area, spawning tornadoes, straight-line winds, driving rain and flash flooding.
A tornado touched down in Morgantown, Berks County, near the Pennsylvania Turnpike Tuesday. Then Wednesday a tornado blasted through parts of Montgomery and Bucks County. Last night a series of thunderstorms pounded the region.
Each night I managed to be driving home - right into the teeth of these storms.
I have a confession to make here.
I love summer thunderstorms.
Note the word I used there.
That's what we used to call them.
Thunderstorms.
Of course, today that will not do. They have to be "super cells."
My feelings on the weather - the the way the news media, especially TV hypes it incessantly - are pretty clear.
I think it is all overkill.
These storms have now become the summer equivalent of snow.
Yes, this week was probably an anomaly. But don't think for a minute this is going away. This is how the weather is going to be handled all week.
Phones will be blowing up with tornado warnings. TV folks will be cajoling us to go down into our basements.
I guess it's all a good thing.
I'm just not sold on the idea that it has as much to do with public safety as it does keeping eyeballs glued to the TV.
Me? I spent much of the last three nights sitting on my front porch, taking in the wonders of nature.
It was my kind of night, hot and humid. Yes, I actually like this soupy weather. The thicker the better.
But something else dawned on me this week about the weather - and why it's different now than it used to be.
Maybe you've noticed it, too.
It has to do with a device that pretty much runs our lives these days.
It's our phones.
Much like everything else in our lives, we no longer can experience the weather.
Now we have to share it.
It doesn't matter if you're dead asleep at 12:30 at night, that tornado warning screech emanating from the phone could wake the dead.
Then of course we have to text each other. What's it doing at your house? Probably pretty much the same thing, since you only live up the street.
Do you have power?
Or more importantly, is your wi-fi still up?
We are compelled to share pictures.
And then there is the app.
The TV stations beat it into our brains. It's not enough to be glued to our TVs. We now have to have the app on our phone so that we can stay "connected" and on top of the latest weather.
Me? I yearn to be "unconnected." Or unplugged.
There is a part of me who remembers when these were simply called thunderstorms.
I guess those days are gone forever.
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