Isn't "Under the Weather" a Universal Condition?

6.13.2014 52m #218

It was soooo good to get to ride again after a forced interregnum. Started at the Bastille. Met R and S at Big Dog Coffee, continued to Homestead and met some cyclists who came all the way from London just to bicycle Pittsburgh to DC.

Rode from the Waterfront to Boston, PA. Reversed. Stopped at REI. Found our way to The Milkshake Factory and between us, we had an egg cream (me), a milkshake and a sundae. The skies opened, the rain fell, we sat inside and watched the people in the weather from a dry, air conditioned space. Shelter and an egg cream does not suck.

So regarding weather, which is above - we have a phrase: (name) is under the weather, meaning: they are sick. But when you consider it, really, who isn't "under" the weather? Are many people above the weather? OK, some aircrews and passengers navigating at high altitudes are on top of some weather, but they're still very much in the weather, and there's still weather above them. This bears further scrutiny. Would you completely trust somebody who wasn't under the weather?

We are told by some, who claim to know such things, that "under the weather" means that on ships, people who were ill were sent below, that is: under the weather-decks; and this anachronistic term persists in a way similar to the term posh which once meant "port-outbound, starboard homebound" (which were the preferred accomodations on a round-trip passage from Britain to India). In the end, it's all the Brit's fault. Sailors.

Went to REI in diminishing showers. I am not above riding in the rain. Rode to the Bastille in the sunshine. 52 miles.