We have so many ways to mark time and keep track of things. From the Mayan calendar, to Stonehenge, the Julian calendar, Day runners and diaries, to the latest cell phones. One thing never seems to change, as humans we tend to use nature to mark time.  Especially weather. Especially in my family.

I would listen to my parents, grandparents, etc, talk of times past, each event no matter how trivial included a detailed weather report.

"Remember those tires I bought for the truck?"

"Which ones?"

"The ones I got before the storm that blew the boats onto the wharf"

 "Good tires, I remember those were good tires, Harold"

  A simple question like, "When did you get that new coat, Auntie?" was not answered with Tuesday, or last week. It's more like this.

 "Right after the ice storm, not the big one that caused all the power outages, but after the little one."

  I thought they were insane. Did anyone else keep track of events like this? I mean, sure it's normal to remember which kid was born in a snowstorm, and which holidays had storms or just plain lousy weather for the day. We took it to the extreme.

 A saw became the saw bought before the big windstorm. We had the pre and post blackout refidgerator. The list goes on.

 I swore I would never do it, I would never become a weather-marker as I called them. Then, my saw died. Which meant I had to go to Weather Central aka Mom's house.

 "Mom, I need a saw, mine's dead the motor blew"

  "Your father would turn in his grave if her knew you broke his saw, Poppi!"

 "Mom, it's 40 years old, it was it's time, it's the old Black and Decker, the one from after the second flood," then it hit me, I had turned into a weather-marker, I'd become like them.

"Poppi! Which saw are you taking?"

"The yellow one"

"Like that means anything to me."

"The one Daddy got after the windstorm that tore down the fence"