I really can't stay

[austin_dern]

I won't deny there are things I miss about Singapore life: that I had an academic job with a really easy schedule, for one, and great students. That I was on the outskirts but still within bus and subway line service of an exciting city. That there were four major food cultures come together. But I really, really got into how the high temperature for every single day was 92 degrees Fahrenheit and the low about 74 and it just didn't get any colder than that.

I can take cold. It gets tolerably cold in New Jersey, although usually for only a couple days at a stretch. But I did do eight winters in Troy, New York, where the first flurries may come as early as Columbus Day and the last may come as late as Labor Day, and going a month without breaking freezing is not unheard-of for May, and to be really cozy in bed you need a couple layers of blankets and to go to the bedroom about a half-hour before you mean to sleep so you can set the box spring on fire.

So it's not like I'm facing the mid-Michigan winter without precedent here. And it hasn't been a bad winter, so far: a couple of snowstorms, none very large; a couple weeks of weather in the 20s, although leavened by a warm snap recently that got into the upper 50s as if that made sense for Michigan in January. But this weekend has seen the temperature drop like a rock; today it was about 18 Fahrenheit when bunny_hugger went outside to fill the squirrel and the birdsquirrel feeders, and Monday isn't looking to be any better.

As I say, I can take cold, but I'm not necessarily saying I approve of this.

Trivia: The early-baseball ceremony of the losers presenting the game ball to the winners was important enough that in 1872 the National Association of Amateur Base Ball Players issued specific instructions for ``Furnishing the Ball'. Source: But Didn't We Have Fun? An Informal History Of Baseball's Pioneer Era, 1843 - 1870, Peter Morris.

Currently Reading: The Triumph Of Numbers: How Counting Shaped Modern Life, I B Cohen.

Comments

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

It's fashionable around here to complain about the cold or the snow, but I could not bear living somewhere without proper seasons, particularly fall. The contrast between the seasons makes them all sweet and new every year. Even the winter I like for the enjoyment of building a fire in my fireplace, or looking outside at moonlight sparkling on snow from the safety of home.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I may be amenable to the grand seasons line of thought, but right this moment, it's 2 degrees Fahrenheit so I'm thinking I might need to go stand in the bathroom's heat vent.

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

Wow.... Itz easier to read ya on my ipad!

Hehe.... Very interesting about the temps! I like that low..... But not sure if that high woulnt get a bit old :D

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Oh, congratulations on the iPad. Hope you're having fun.

I didn't feel like the low-90s highs were in danger of getting old. Of course, see above comments about what the temperature right now is.

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

I personally am wonderfully fine with the snow, the cold, and the depths of freezing.. though the need to pay an expensive oil bill, and today's first-ever being snowbound, may change my opinion somewhat.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I'm coming to realize I need better ways of handling snow-covered shoes, myself. Particularly getting them on and off.