Dear You,
yesterday evening I got a WARNING on my cellphone. A warning from my new weather forecast App.
"Terrible thunderstorm in the evening" it said (no: shouted), and gave advice what to bind, shelter, save and keep tucked away.
I am amenable to influence. Though I had my doubts: the sun was shining and the air quite hot for the beginning of May. I looked at the four red blossoms that had - finally - opened on my well-winter-protected tiny camellia, sighed and started half-heartedly to change my balcony into a fortress.
Well, well, well. As you see on the photo above, the thunderstorm came. With strong wind.
Best watched from inside, as lightning started too.
Rain, pouring. Which was good, as we didn't have much rain here the last two month.
But nothing terrible happened. Just a normal thunderstorm.
And I got a bit angry. I know that it is important to warn people - remembering the catastrophe we had in the Ahrtal. But still I felt that here one had been dramatic with intent: the media blow up every molehill to a mountain, every pimple might be cancer, the weather report uses the vocabulary of war.
Our world has so many real problems, so much terrible things happen, so many liars and drama-queens (and kings!) around.
Angrily I deleted the App - and loaded a beautiful new one up instead that my son had recommended: it tells me which birds are singing just now around me.
Of course I know the song of the Eurasian Black Bird, the Great Tit, the Blue Tit, the Sparrow, the Common Chaffinch, the Greenfinch, the Common Cuckoo.
Yet the Serin was new to me.
So: this App makes me happy - not terrified for nothing.
Yes, quite right. There are drama queens creating apps, and it's good to avoid them. There's enough to worry about already. Much better to hear birdsong.
ReplyDeleteDear Boud, yes, birdsong especially in the early morning in -still - spring is so beautiful! A time to inhale calmness.
DeleteIn the US we have amber alerts. They let us know that a child has been abducted and what to watch for. It is a good ides but the blaring noise is unnecessary. Even the weather alerts are not that loud.
ReplyDeleteOops - this was the answer to Helen's comment, sorry - something changed.
DeleteDear Helen, I will try to alert our meteorologists too - in that way they work a bit slovenly :-)
Nod... I don't mind rain at all, given that Melbourne is a bit drought ridden most summers. But PLEASE can the meteorologists arrange rain to fall after 10 PM and be finished by 7AM.
ReplyDeleteDear Mimmylynn, the intent of that device sounds good, but the noise doesn't. I don't know anything like that - here we have sirens, or fire alarm, but that's it. Otherwise police might come in cars with megaphones.
DeleteHello Britta,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment on my blog.
I sometimes think that media tries to be overly dramatic to draw attention. Rather, it makes me not believe anything. This makes me think of the fable about "crying wolf." Do you know it?
Dear Lorrie, thank you for your comment and reading my blog. I know the fable about the wolf - hopefully it doesn't happen here. "Bad news are good news" - for the sales figures of newspapers maybe - but they are definitely not good for our health.
DeleteAnd it becomes more and more difficult to decide which are real and which are fake.
Dearest Britta, I'm just stopping by to say hullo! I am thrilled to read you've swapped a flawed and futile app for one which can make your heart sing and leave you enlightened, to boot!
ReplyDeleteThe weather - why is it that the more advanced the computers become and the more serious we are expected to take the scientists, the more hopeless they become in their forecasts? Coupled with the hyperventilating Warnings, which I, too, have recognised and become irritated by, I no longer trust anything they say and basically set out each day, prepared for all eventualities and take my chances. We also have electronic billboards in our neighbourhoods exhorting us to Be Aware of the Extreme Heat and Stay Hydrated this past summer, and honestly, some days I still needed to wear a cardigan!! Total hyperbole and the Nanny State gone mad!
Dear Pip, great that you popped in! (I just reread my E.F.Benson's - for such a long time I was member of the E.F.Benson Society and enjoyed meetings in England with a very illustre group :-) .
DeleteAs to "Nanny state" : yes, indeed!!!
I hope that some grown-up politicians will behave as - and treat us (us, "The Sovereign" - the voters) as grown-ups (but am disheartened : even the dictionary offers only one (!) noun and classifies it as ""outdated" - here we are...)
After blindly believing in weather forecasts and some wholesome lessons I started to trust my senses: I go onto the balcony, look at the clouds, and decide that I take an umbrella even if the weather forecast says snickering: "In the next 12 hours enjoy the sunshine, love!" - and often I am right, and if not: my little pink umbrella weighs only 100 gram - as much as a bar of chocolate.