A couple weeks back, the Ladybug (and Queen B and I) was visited by her grandmother from the East Coast, the Nana B. Well, this week, in a show of continental symmetry, she’s being visited by her grandmother from the West Coast, her Nana Shoo.
Now the Nana Shoo is my mom, and being a life long Left Coaster, knew only that South Dakota was just north of The Middle of Nowhere, somewhere in that nebulous portion of the United States between the two coasts on which ancient cartographers would have written “Here be monsters,” or, more appropriately, “Here be monster trucks.”
So it was not unexpected that she wanted to know what the weather was like in order to pack appropriately. I laughed and explained that it was traditional South Dakota summer weather: hot and humid, and oppressively sunny. I explained that when the Ladybug’s other nana had arrived, we were hit by a sudden and freak case of wet weather for much of it, including a hailstorm that beat the hell out of the Queen B’s car, but as soon as she’d left, everything went back to high and dry.
Taking that into account, my mom packed for warm weather, headed to Rapid City, and was greeted by this
which dumped hail like this
and turned our yard into this:
The only logical explanations I can come up with are the following:
1. The universe has a predilection for meteorological symmetries to coincide with continental ones.
Unfortunately, such a position postulates that the universe has predilections at all, which, while extremely popular in explaining observed phenomena (e.g. Finagle’s Law), is something I don’t subscribe to. Another possibility:
2. The Ladybug’s grandmothers are utterly miserable creatures who bring with them perpetual storm clouds, like in the comics.
However, based on both numerous observations and a hope for a future inheritance, I know both of these ladies to be fun and charming creatures, so this option is out. Hence, by Occam’s Razor, the only other possibility is the following.
3. The Ladybug’s grandmothers are Rain Gods.
In related news, I shall henceforth be referred to as Thor, thank you very much.
