Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Baby, It's cold outside?
Or, someone's cold weather may be someone else's temperate weather...

This is the time of year when the WEATHER is the big story. TV Weather-casters, no longer relegated to a couple minutes 3/4ths of the way thru the broadcast, get to step right up to the plate and swing hard at the top of the news, gleefully rubbing their hands together as they offer up all their semi-confusing analyses of weather conditions, which we don't need to hear because we can see it all on the satellite weather map anyway.

In North Idaho, where I came from, single-digit lows are expected for Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights; it's Wednesday right now, so folks "back home" have a wee-little bit of time to try and protect their pipes as best as they can. Down here on the Oregon Coast, weathercasters are making much ado about frozen roads which probably won't get snowed on. The weathercaster said tonite that "if people see snow, they slow down, but if there's no snow, they don't", which is one of those logical gems that weather forecasters are so famous for.

In other words, you can't really see frozen rain on the roads, so take it easy. I think it's called "black ice", a term I haven't even heard used on the TV news down here. Lemme tell ya, "black ice" is an ultra-common term up where I used to live. I'm just kinda thinking that, after experiencing for YEARS, the weather "up there", I can handle almost anything Mother Nature throws at me down here. However, I have one little TRUE STORY which puts this all in perspective:

I was shopping at a local retail grocery outlet today (all right, "grocery store"), and was in the process of loading groceries into the back seat (oh, my aching back), when I saw one of the lady grocery checkers, evidently returning from her lunch hour; she had her coat on and her arms were tightly crossed in a body-hug as she proceeded to the store's entrance, and she was shivering; I looked up at her and I said, "you sound like you're freezing", and she said, "Brrrr! COLD!!!" And I thot, "huh?"

To sum all of this up, I had my coat on, but it was open. I wasn't shiverrrrring at all. The skies were overcast, it was not raining, the winds were light, and it was about 45 degrees. A perfect temperature for getting things done. And she, an area native, was shivering. I was tempted to tell her, "you should go to where I used to LIVE", but I didn't. After all, being new to the area, I don't want anyone to regard me as a smart-ass. Not right away, anyway...
____________________

Of course, one snowflake on the roads, or one broken egg on the freeways in Los Angeles can stop traffic for who knows how long...but if I lived down there, I'd probably think, "wow, it is so HOT here all the time!" Whether you can see the snow on the roads or not...do slow down; always a good practice in the wintertime.

7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Your checker should have joined Mike and me clearing the drive this morning - he on snowblower, me on tractor powered plow.

Eight degrees with 15 mile an hour winds. It was so cold my back didn't even hurt! Two hours for me (after dog walk) and two and a half for him. Now that's cold.

12:50 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Here's my post this morning in the midst of Eugene's school closing "snow storm".

Winds whipping between three and five miles per hour blinded travellers in the Eugene/Springfield area while 1/2 inch of snow fell on the metropolitan area. Lane Community College as well as the Eugene and Springfield public schools are closed. Lane Transit buses will be on snow routes.

Children are encouraged to get up early to try and find enough snow to make a snowball. Snowmen will be impossible. Sledding is out, unless the children don't mind dragging sleds along dirt.

Stay tuned for updates. City and school officials are hopeful that these conditions will ease up so that the cities' shared paralysis can be eased.

6:41 PM  
Blogger Lil ol' me... said...

Whenever I experienced cold temps, blistering winds, tons of snow and frozen pipes, I always felt like I was under siege, a prisoner in my own house.

I remember when I used to go on training runs in the winter, long ago...two pairs of sweat pants, 3 sweatshirts and a wool hat...I stayed warm while running, but then when I walked back to my residents, the sweat would start freezing. BRRRRR!

6:43 PM  
Blogger Lil ol' me... said...

Yeah, Mr. Pert...I hear that schools up in Portland closed things down due to a half-inch on the roads and parents are all up in arms about it. In CDA, we never got a "snow day" unless there was at least a foot on the ground!

6:44 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh no! not another "Yah shudda been there...

Welcome back Dave...

8:19 PM  
Blogger Word Tosser said...

See what happens when you wish us all lots of snow!!... you mean down at the beach didn't get any? When I heard Oregon got it, I thought you got your jinx on us back at ya...lol...
Skating rink up here now.
But I got my garden catalogs today, so Spring is coming.

11:04 PM  
Blogger Lil ol' me... said...

We may not have a lot of snow here, but I'll tell you's all something that might make ya feel better...I actually had to SCRAPE snow off my car today. And there's ice in shady spots. I keep wondering, "when is our half-inch of snow going to melt"? (oooh, I'm probably in big trouble now!)

6:23 PM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home