too hot to move

The last week out here has been HOT!!!! Unbearably hot. Stinking, sweating, not wanting to move at all kind of hot. Hot as Hades. Crazy, freakin' hot.

I don't know what I'm complaining about, though. Ninety-four degrees in Oakland, California is nowhere near as uncomfortable as ninety-four degrees used to be in Cleveland, Ohio. 'Cause when it gets that hot in Ohio, it comes along with 100% humidity, just for kicks. Then you're sweating everywhere. You break a sweat just getting up and walking over to the thermostat to crank up the air conditioning. Hot. This isn't as bad as all that, but when you live in California where the weather is mild every day, little changes in that routine start to piss you off. I find that I'm much more emotional about the weather than I used to be. I get grumpy about it much more now, whether it's too hot, too cold, too wishy-washy (cold at night, cold in the morning, boiling hot in the afternoon, then cold again) or too foggy. I'm always complaining.

Us Californians are just soft, I guess.

And I don't appreciate the fairer months the way I used to. Spring isn't the same unless you've suffered through an unbearably cold and long winter. Then, the sight of Dad's crocuses planted alongside the driveway as they first start to peep through the frozen tundra of the front yard . . . ah, nothing so beautiful in all the world.

And nothing is so green or so lovely as a tree in bloom after you've looked at white powder for the last six months. Icy streets and cold cars in the morning and rock salt mixed with dirty slush. The need to put on four layers of clothing just to go out and get the mail. Cheeks red and sore from being battered by an unforgiving winter wind. Nostrils getting stuck together just from breathing in that frigid air. Sweating like a pig under four layers of clothing because some things, like shoveling the snow off your driveway, just can't wait until spring. Getting pelted in the head with a snowball and feeling it start to run down your shirt and make you shiver uncontrollably.

Hmm. I'm feeling cooler already.

Posted: Tue - April 27, 2004 at 10:32 PM

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too hot to move

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