I hate the cold

[chas]

I did four years of hard labor (and hard partying) in Maine. I know from cold. I don't like it, which is why I moved South and eventually settled south of the Mason-Dixon line. I actually don't dislike the cold, I just don't like it for long periods of time. A week or two of winter, maybe once or twice a winter is fine. I'm not usually dissatisfied with winter by early January.

But this year is different. We had almost 30" (70 cm) of snow in December. I can still see the stuff on the ground. I think it's hit 40 F (5 C) a couple of times in the last 3 weeks, with most days' highs around freezing or a few degrees lower. It's not forecast to hit 40 for another ten days. Plus the wind's been blowing like crazy. To get kindling for the stove, I really just have to stick my hand out at any given time, and an appropriate branch will fall into it. Okay, that last part was an exaggeration, but two days' worth is falling pretty much every day. I had to spray paint something at work today, and it was virtually impossible -- even in the corner between two wings of the building, the wind was so brisk I had to hold the spray can an inch or so from the (very large) piece. Of course, at around freezing, you only have a few minutes to paint outside.

I got so fed up with the cold that I went ahead and ran on the cold, hard ground, with tights, sweat shirt, shell, and gloves (I hate wearing anything more than shorts and shoes when running, or any time for that matter). Now I'm reduced to looking for a hat. When I run in a hat, something is wrong with the world.

Rant mode off.

[sbfluter]

Cold? What's that? I think it was about 80 on Saturday. Been wearing sandals and going barefoot most days. Maybe you need to come out west.

[The Weekenders]

Uh, more precisely, south in the West. It's cold here, too, up in SF Bay area, though not freezing. Really, sb, you know darn well that not everybody can live in Santa Boobery (my son's who attends UCSB name for it). The place is already too crowded as it is. Or, maybe they should build some more houses on the steep canyon walls so they can add fuel to the next conflagration. Nyuk.

[sbfluter]

Ok, then come out South and West. Maybe Slab City near the Salton Sea will be cheaper, more to your liking and less burnable.

[Lambchop]

It is 37.2 F here and falling rapidly. I heard predictions of sleet and snow flurries for the weekend, too.

[Lambchop]

Sigh. 35.8.

[uillmann]

You're in Maryland? If you think this is too uncomfortable, move to San Diego - it's very nice there. Even in February, you can go outside first thing in the morning in your boxers and flip flops, and it feels exactly like it does in July. But it's a cultural wasteland. The fake boobs and Baja tacos wear thin after a few weeks, and you realize you are in margarita-dystopia.

[MTGuru]

San Diego ... it's a cultural wasteland. The fake boobs and Baja tacos wear thin after a few weeks, and you realize you are in margarita-dystopia.

Actually, the only boobs I ever see around here are clueless visitors.

Yes, it was nice here today, temps around 80F/27C.

[hans]

watch this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8444835.stm

[Innocent Bystander]

I'm at work, and sometimes - but not always - videos get blocked by the net-nanny. All I see in Hans' page is a big area of whitespace. It's captioned "Aerial parorama of Yorkshire during the snows". I can't work out if that is the video or not. I am prepared to believe it is....

I was alone at work today until a colleague struggled in. I was planning to watch the "Golden Compass" DVD. Darn.

[chrisoff]

I was alone at work today until a colleague struggled in. I was planning to watch the "Golden Compass" DVD. Darn.

You should thank them, it's rubbish (though Eva Green redeems it a little).

My street's been buried under snow for 3 weeks now. I'm getting a bit fed up of the stuff.

[chrisoff]

Interesting picture from the University of Dundee:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/p ... html/1.stm

[SkipJack]

I got so fed up with the cold that I went ahead and ran on the cold, hard ground, with tights, sweat shirt, shell, and gloves (I hate wearing anything more than shorts and shoes when running, or any time for that matter). Now I'm reduced to looking for a hat. When I run in a hat, something is wrong with the world.

Oh! Don't let the bulky clothes get you down. It's been solidly below the freezing point in Boston since November. That never stopped me from walking outside in shorts and a t-shirt or even romping barefoot in the snow.

[MTGuru]

Interesting picture from the University of Dundee:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/p ... html/1.stm

That's bizarre. Why is Ireland not similarly blanketed?

[Doug_Tipple]

I moved from Indiana to Tucson, Arizona to attend graudate school years ago. I liked the warmth and dryness of the desert so much that I stayed there for 30 years. But all good things must come to end, and I moved back to my home state to look after my aging parents. That was over ten years ago, and both of my parents are gone now. In the meantime I have gotten married to an Indiana woman with deep family roots in Indiana, so it doesn't look like I will be moving south any time soon.

Some people may think of Indianapolis as being quite cold in the winter. Actually, if you look at the world globe, you will see that at 40 degrees lattitude we are at the same lattitude as the boot of Italy, unfortunately not immediately next to a large body of warm water, like Italy. Today we are having our first major snowfall of the winter. It looks like we may have about 6 inches on the ground. My wife called from work during the heaviest part of the snowfall and asked if I had run the snowblower yet. I guess she thinks that I am going to do that in the middle of a blizzard. No thanks. I will wait until it is done snowing, and then I will run the snowblower like other sane people. However, most people on my block could really care less about snow removal. They simply don't do it.