Talking about the weather is such an odd thing.

For most anyone is always ready to discuss it.

People open up when someone has a dog. And the same is true when children are around.

But the weather has a universal quality that even passes both of these.

The weather affects us all, and how we love to talk on about the things that affect us.

As an aside, and based on a very intimate knowledge of both, if you are ever around a farmer or pilot and searching for something to say, this is your go-to topic.

There are seven or eight categories of phenomena in the world that are worth talking about, and one of them is the weather. Any time you care to get in your car and drive across the country and over the mountains, come into our valley, cross Tinker Creek, drive up the road to the house, walk across the yard, knock on the door and ask to come in and talk about the weather, you’d be welcome. If you came tonight from up north, you’d have a terrific tailwind; between Tinker and Dead Man you’d chute through the orchardy pass like an iceboat. When I let you in, we might not be able to close the door. The wind shrieks and hisses down the valley, sonant and surd, drying the puddles and dismantling the nests from the trees.

-Annie Dillard, Pilgrim At Tinker Creek