GARDEN ROUTE NEWS - It seems as though Australian folk-rock group Crowded House had the right idea when they suggested you always take the weather with you everywhere you go. Sadly though, one can't pack up sunshine and save it for a rainy day.
I have called Knysna home for the last nine months and in that time, if there's one thing I've learnt about the town (other than the fact that nothing is open after 17:00 on weekends), it's that you can never bet your house on a weather report.
To be fair, I was probably over-exaggerating a bit, shops close down a little closer to 16:00 on weekends. But, that's probably because shop owners are tired of having their staff change outfits 10 times throughout the day every time the wind changes direction or the sun pokes its head out from behind the clouds and the temperature changes dramatically.
I mean, as a Knysnarian (Knysna-ite, Knysnian et al), one needs to wake up in the morning and pack half your cupboard into your car to simply cope with the mood swings in the weather.
Luckily though, since the turn of the decade these 'weatherly' mood swings have been stretched out over a matter of days instead of hours, but this still throws you off your rocker, because you don't know whether the weather man can predict what weather tomorrow will bring.
I for one am someone who enjoys a bit of heat but, as those who know me well enough know, I grew up in Musina, and that means I like dry heat, and not the ridiculous levels of humidity we had in Knysna before the rains relieved us of it.
The rains lead to the Salt River breaking its banks on Tuesday 21 January.
When Knysna experienced that heatwave, for once in my life I was jealous of those in the Karoo who enjoy some drier heat, much like the dry heat I grew up with.
But just when I thought I could get used to this humid summer nonsense, the rains came down (thankfully the floods didn't come up), and threw my entire fresh adjustment to the weather completely out of sync.
I had only just mastered the art of balancing which shorts should go with which shirt in case it stayed hot and humid, and which shorts should go with which shirt or jersey in case it got cold.
But then, just as I'd figured out my way around the shorts debacle, I found myself having to juggle which long pants, which jerseys, and which shoes are waterproof, just so that I don't turn into a frozen raisin when I go outside for too long.
For now though, it at least seems as though the cold, wet weather will subside. Hopefully I can return to my shorts schedule for the rest of what's left of summer, and enjoy some warm sunny weather.
Please Mother Nature? If not for me, then for everyone else?
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