AP Photo

A local TV weather personality described yesterday's weather as a "rainy, dreary day" during their morning broadcast.
I was listening to this as I was looking at a computer screen full of dramatic Associated Press photos depicting wildfires consuming hundreds of square miles Southern California, incinerating thousands of homes and taking several lives. The photos showed firefighters just feet away from towering walls of flame, families sleeping in a stadium because their homes were gone or in danger, and homeowners picking through the rubble looking for shards of their material existence.
Then I thought about the disasters we don't hear much about every day. Droughts in Africa are not extraordinary; they are the norm. Much of the third world depends on natural weather cycles for their livelihoods and their lives in a way we haven't needed to in years.
With all the talk of global climate change, we have just started to examine our role as the dominant species on earth. Yet so far we seem unable to break ourselves from the "sunny day good, rainy day bad" mentality that seems to plague our television personalities.
I find them dreary.
I am glad when it rains, and glad when it's sunny. I like that it gets cold in the winter, and warm in the summer. The goal is balance, and we are fortunate to live in an area that usually has a pretty good variety of mild weather. The past two months have been very dry, and the rain we received this week is just what we needed.
For that, I am thankful.

Some scenes from a recent afternoon in the city.
Extra points if you can identify the first photo (the others are easy).

OK, so I posted a picture of clouds. I guess I am officially a weather nerd. But you have to admit, there were some very cool cloud formations around Friday afternoon. You may have to zoom the bottom photo to see the balloon.

Did you ever feel like you were being watched? There was plenty of that during the grand opening of a new taxidermy and tannery shop in Telford Sunday. Lots of human eyes staring at the glass eyes.

Fall weekends are tumbling by, heading straight into the inevitable vortex of the Holiday Season.

The King of Country Music, Jody King, from Bensalem, played at the Montgomery Township Autumn Festival Saturday while his horse waited patiently nearby. I wonder how many other country singers live in Bensalem.

Campfire smoke at the Cuboree hung over the tennis courts in Upper Gwynedd Saturday night making the whole place look like a mad scientist's lab.

Those awake in the wee hours of Saturday morning were treated to a pageant of obscurity.

Used to be pretty rare to see a heron. Now they can be spotted in golf courses and ponds throughout our area. This one was watching the Suburban 1 league high school golf championship at Indian Valley Country Club Tuesday.

A tree on Main Street in Pennsburg loses its leaves the hard way during a building fire.