We're about as cool as the cavemen

No matter the level of our so-called sophistication, Mother Nature has us figured out.

Last weekend, was a perfect case in point. Post-tropical storm Noel roared up the eastern seaboard Saturday into Sunday, mediating behaviour and expectations every step of the way.

We can pretend that myriad other things occupy a greater priority on our personal agendas, but the weather is – and always has been – number one on the hit parade whenever Ma Nature decides to flex her considerable muscles.

People discuss the weather in coffee shops and grocery store line-ups, during phone conversations and face-to-face encounters. Most people to whom I spoke Saturday couldn’t help but mention Noel’s impending arrival: how bad it would be, how much rain (50-70 mm) was expected and the kind of damage near-hurricane force (100-km-per-hour-plus) winds could wreak.

It was the top topic, and it didn’t matter where you were. It was like waiting for Godot, except Noel showed up finally Saturday afternoon after a ton of speculation that had the storm appearing much earlier, then at suppertime and eventually in full plumage at approximately 1 a.m. Sunday.

CTV kept weatherwoman Cindy Day on an hourly watch into the evening Saturday – poor woman – and The Weather Network couldn’t stop talking about what was due.

They had Shelley Steeves in Moncton, in a driving rain, telling us the storm had, in fact, made landfall. Sheesh!

I feel sorry for weather folks when a big ticket like this comes along. Although I’m sure it’s a thrill to report on something as monumental as Noel, you know darn well some poor soul is going to get the dreaded assignment. The one where you don a heavy raincoat and galoshes once you’re done hair and makeup and given the singular privilege of covering the storm while actually being part of it.

I’ve covered just about anything you could name and did it with a mental shrug. In downpours, bitter cold, snowstorms, floods, heat that’d fry an egg, I’ve been there. But the story has usually been something else. The weather was a precursor; the results made the story sing.

In this instance, I guess because we haven’t had a weather whopper in a while, folks couldn’t wait to see how things would shake out. We were due, too, you know? We had a relatively benign summer and fall has been downright terrific. We didn’t have a lot to gab about weather-wise.

But this storm grabbed everyone’s interest, due partly to the fact it had hype and suspense plus the legitimate threat of being something monstrous.

Did it deliver? You can judge that. Did we react characteristically? Of course. It’s in our nature.

No matter how civilized we think we are, we’re still cavemen huddled in the dark, equally amazed and terrified by nature’s power.

What happened last weekend should be a subtle reminder. We’ve come a long way, baby, but not nearly as far as we purport.