Things that shouldn't upset me, but do:

"Cooperative weather observer needed," read the headline on the weather bureau's local page. I was intrigued and tapped out a note to the point of contact indicating my possible interest in the volunteer position.

I've long had an avid interest in the weather and weather-related phenomena. I took storm spotter training back in March or so, though I am not yet confident enough in my abilities to report weather conditions preceding a storm to the weather bureau.

In fact, I probably let the weather dictate my life a little too much. Chance of rain? I'm staying in. Might snow? I'm taking the day off work, and imploring my wife to do the same. And so on and so forth.

Anyway, I had about a week's worth of correspondence with the guy from the National Weather Service. We'd established a fairly good rapport, it seemed, and he Google Earthed my address to see if my yard was sufficient to put a small weather station (i.e., no significant obstructions, large buildings, etc. nearby to impede accurate temperature and precipitation measurements). It was sufficient, and it seemed that I was on my way to being a part of the team. Co-op observing is a Very Important Element in the weather bureau's climatology measurements and predictions.

"Great," I said. "I just have a couple of other questions about time commitments and whatnot."

The weather bureau guy copied and pasted some info from a webpage, and said, "Are you free Monday afternoon?"

But.

The info he sent me kind of put me off. Said that there were daily reporting requirements, and observations should be made between 3 and 6 in the afternoon. If there was no precip in the last 24 hours, you just log onto the website and report temperature readings, and you're done for the day. If there was some rain that day, then there's a little more effort involved. And if there's snow, it can take as much as a half-hour to measure it - you've got to melt the snow, and blah blah blah, and so on and so forth. Just sounded like a lot of effort, more than I was ultimately willing to put in.

The thing that turned me off the most, though, was the fact that they were going to bury some wiring to run from the station to a thermometer in the house, so temperature observations could be made without leaving the house. I just didn't dig the fact that they would be digging up my yard to run this wire.

I took all of this into consideration, and sent a very polite note back to my POC telling him that while I appreciated the effort and communication over the last week, that I couldn't make the commitment necessary, and thank you for your time, good luck in your search for an observer, and may the wind always be at your back and all that good-time-touchy-feely garbage that I've made an art form in my professional career.

And he wrote back, saying, "Thank you for your interest, and sorry that you won't be able to assist us, and good luck to you as well."

Just kidding. He didn't write me back.

And that's what pisses me off the most. You spend your time being a decent human being and showing an interest in something, and being genuinely upset that you had a change of heart, and your heartfelt words get roundfiled without the courtesy of a reply.

So, you know, fuck 'em.

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