March 01, 2006

• Wait -- you're autumn down there, and we're still in winter? Howzat work? Did you fast-forward through one? Is spring just not coming this year? It was there for a while in January -- the snowdrops even came out -- but then we went back into the deep freeze. Mind you, it was the longest fall ever here, but on the other hand, we had the earliest ice wine harvest ever. Now I'm totally confused. As usual. All I know is that I'm sick of hacking into my car every morning.
• March 1st = autumn, man! And it's a crappy, crappy cold day here today to prove it. How does one hack a car? Does one have to be l33t?
• We have opposite seasons to you sad, backward northern hemispherites. Eating turkey on xmas day on the beach in sunny 90 degrees is the wave of the futum, harry-as-a-boy.
• Hacking into one's car: It involves a small plastic triangle on the end of a small wooden pole. You attack the ice using your little triangle on the passenger door handle, yank it open as hard as you can, stick the keys in the ignition and run the defrost on full blast, and then close the door, careful not to lock yourself out. Then, you chip and hack and pry and scrape off as much ice off the windows as you can, and try not to damage the car too much, or at least, just restrict it to new wiperblades. Once all the ice is hacked away, you go after the stray pieces of ice by putting on the antifreeze, now that the car has warmed up, and heaven help you if you only had the tapwater in there from last summer, in which case you need to do everything all over again, if you haven't totally fucked up the spray nozzle. Lesson two: the Unploughed Parking Lot.
• I used to live up North. You are going about it the wrong way, Capt. Just piss on the lock so that it is easily accessible. Start the car. Put it the defrost on full blast, and then go inside and take your shower, eat your breakfast, etc. My neighbor across the street used to do that when I was a kid. He was also my eighth grade math teacher. Well, not the pissing part.
• Thanks for the link, and the rest of the site looks interesting as well. But how could that take the romance out ?
• I always prefer the "carve-a-tiny-hole-in-the-windshield-ice-and-drive-peering-through -it" method.
• But then, I now ride the bus.
• As when we name seasons we're essentially identifying the consequences of periodic variances in solar radiation, I can't see any more sensible way of doing this than saying (as they do in many countries) "autumn is the period beginning at the first equinox of the year which lasts until the next solstice". So see you in three weeks or so. I am sorry you are cold. It is 35C here today, or 95 in the old money. Now Jeff Harrell can come in and explain why this is all evil metricising crap.
• I want one of those remote car starter thingums so I can push a button from inside my house and start up my car. It warms up whilst I am toasty warm inside!
• Haven't those been banned yet, meredithea? I thought there were a bunch of stories of people being squished by cars left in gear and set to start remotely. It's 15C here at this moment, the warmest point of the day and a shock after the high-20s temperatures up to yesterday. It really feels like someone flipped a switch. It almost felt frosty this morning. I don't miss Jeff Harrell.
• ah! never have a doubted the wisdom of moving from northern new jersey to the San Francisco Bay Area. Its been really cold here too, like 50F (thats running about 10-15C for you European types)
• Those remote starters are the cat's ass in a climate where you have to plug your car in at night. You know it's reealy cold when you've got square tires.
• Its been really cold here too, like 50F I grew up in Maine, went to college in Chicago, and now live near Boston, so you'll pardon my snorting at the very notion of 50F as "really cold". It was 6F outside my house Monday morning, and the first day of spring is only three weeks away. If I could have one climate year-round, it would be autumn. I put up with New England eleven months out of the year just for October.
• It's hell to have one of those remote starter dinguses when you're an ace underworld spy, and you keep it in the same drawer as the Detonator Button for Blowing Up Bad Guys. There goes the Bentley. Damn, gotta take the personal helo-pac to work again.
• briank I was joking. I grew up in Northern New Jersey, usually owning a car that required me to keep my foot on the gas pedal for the first 5 minutes of its 10+ minute warmup not to stall in the arctic winters. I know about shoveling a foot of wet snow off yr driveway to go to work. I know about air that feels like a knife in yr lungs. I know about frozen boogers... Thats why I am happy to live in sunny Oakland, sometime murder capital of America, but always boasting some of the best weather! and warm furry cashmere wishes to all of you freezing yr monkeybuns off in the northern realms!
• I used to have one of those remote starters, but I was always afraid to use it. I always worried that a stray cat would get up inside the hood and I'd start it.
• !sdrawkcab gnihtyreve ruoy dna seissuA yzarc ouY
• ... /glare
• *has just spent two hours walking in 91° F(32° C), with 62% humidity, under a glaring sun* And with the exception of frequent bouts of lukewarm rain that feels like fresh spittle from heaven, that's how it is here every day. *goes off to wring a gallon of sweat from her handkerchief*
• Monkeyfilter: fresh spittle from heaven
• *seethes*
• Oh yeah, Spring Training is going on in "Autumn"! Ha! You down-underers and your drugs!
• Cheers! And a cup of fresh warm spittle to you, Pleg!
• Just because it's nothing but dead chlorphyll doesn't mean seeing the xanthophyll and carotenes is any less pretty. Living in Michigan I can definitely attest to the amazing burst of color we get when the maples are turning bright yellow and orange - pretty! Of course when I lived out west it was the aspens that got me - they look like streaks of hot flames running through the dark green pines in the mountains...
• Oh yeah, forgot to add: The Underpants Monster? Kiwi. Definitely remember Kiwi. It's like looking at a Canadian and saying "You Americans are so weird". It gets you in trouble. :)