We lived in Central Vermont for 15 years. Eight foot tunnels on either side of the driveway like those in Peter's picture were common. It doesn't sound like it could be, but it really was fun.
At age, 53, our kids all out of school and gainfully employed, we decided enough of this working nonsense and set out for a couple of years' adventure with only what we could fit in a Dodge Caravan.
Most fun I ever had.
We drove all over our own county, our neighbor to the north (alas not as far as Alaska) and our neighbor to the south.
I originally wanted to drive to Patagonia, but political conditions in the nether regions changed our minds.
When we got tired of living out of suitcases, we found a little town that time forgot in Florida and built a small beach house. Unfortunately, developers found us about ten years ago and since then it's been a constant battle to keep time out.
Sorry we never got to San Diego though -- heard tell it's heaven on earth.
I was born in Michigan, grew up in upstate New York, and went to college in Boston (Cambridge actually) so I've lived in snow. I left it the second I could. Yuck!
San Diego is not, of course, heaven on earth. It's got the usual corrupt politicians, etc.
But it is rather scenic, most of the people are pretty friendly, it has a reasonably diverse economy, and the weather is consistently very nice. It has the best of nothing, but pretty good everything. To rephrase the saying about New York, it's a great place to live, but I wouldn't want to visit there (though for some reason, there is a lot of tourism).
Bret, I should have been more specific, it's been said San Diego weather is heaven on earth, but it's nice to know it's a pretty nice all round place to live.
Living in the far north like Vermont, and I assume Canada, is far different from Massachusetts and Connecticut, where we lived for a long time, and probably even Michigan. The cold sets in and stays until the dreaded mud season about mid-March when everybody who can, departs for warmer climes. so there aren't many of those bone chilling cold, damp, drizzly days when the snow turns to slush then melts again ...
As Peter's picture shows, the snow stays crisp and white and can be shaken off one's boots unlike slush which can penetrate any foot gear made by the hand of man (or woman).
Today, as promised, we have 75 deg. and sunshine and even warmer temps are predicted in the next day or two -- with any luck, winter is over.
erp, I suspect you are suffering from a bad case of winter-nostalgia born of too many years in the sunshine state. Have you forgotten all those mid-winter thaws and rain/sleet storms that muck everything up?
Bret:
We survive by perfecting the art of winter-denial. Here are some examples of the things we tell each other to avoid going insane or murdering one another:
1. We Canadians are blessed to have four distinct seasons. Can you imagine how boring it would be to live in Florida?
2. Winter doesn't really start until the canal opens and it's pretty much over when it closes. About six weeks.
3. Yeah, this one is uncommonly cold and long. When I was a kid winter was only January and February.
4. Yes, it is bitterly cold, but it is soooo...sunny! Imagine how depressing it would be to live in San Francisco?
5. You can almost always count on a mild day afer every ten-day deep freeze. Imagine how awful it would be to live in Siberia?
6. You don't really notice winter if you dress properly.
7. The trick is not to stay indoors and get overheated. You don't really notice winter if you get out there and challenge it.
8. Sure it's cold, but just think about that dreadful summer humidity. Imagine how awful it would be to live in the Tropics?
The canal is a marvel. The only problem in high winter is that it acts as a wind tunnel--anything more than a 3mph wind and it is a struggle going one way. Nonetheless it is a major attraction here and a big deal for thousands of hardy, healthy residents. Being neither particularly hardy nor healthy, my wife and I tend to talk about how badly we feel about not getting out on the canal more and then go skiing.
erp wrote: "...not like the damp cold rainy sleety winters of MA..."
When my wife first moved here to San Diego from MA, she was homesick for Boston. So I said, "Let's go for a little visit to Boston - I'll make arrangements." I arranged for us to be there mid-March. It was perfect! 35 degrees and raining the whole time! We were cold, miserable, drowned rats, slinking from bar to bar ordering hot chocolates with Bailey's!
She never wanted to go back to Boston again. Was I evil?
erp, winter is certainly bearable and has its upsides, but I find it's the little things that grind you down the longer it goes on. For the past six weeks, every car in Ottawa has been absolutely filthy, with windows smeared to the point of hazard. Unless you have a heated garage, you can't wash them because the locks will freeze. Yesterday it went up to freezing here for the first time since Xmas and so I grabbed the opportunity to wash ours. It felt like I had a new car! No, more than that. Angels descended, birds sang, etc.
That was the funniest thing I have read in a long time.
++++
I grew up in Southern California, and went to USC.
After that, the Air Force decided where I got to live: lots of interesting and enjoyable places (the UK, in particular), and some not quite so (Clovis, New Mexico, and Del Rio, TX). No garden spots along the way, until my last assignment in Pensacola, FL.
Which we left for Detroit, then went even further north to Alaska.
Anyway, when you don't get to choose where you live, you have to be adaptable.
Yesterday, XC skiing for the first time, today snowshoeing up a glacial valley, with temps like they have been for about 18 months now: 10 degrees F below seasonal averages.
Anyway, as a Lance Armstrong wannabee, I should live in the Napa Valley. No such luck.
And, I must say, I am weak. The temperatures we have been enduring up here for over a year have made increasingly difficult for me to lie awake nights worrying about global warming, despite obligations to the contrary.
Hey, erp, I hate to interrupt your nostalgic daydreams of "crisp and white" snow until March, but they are calling for six hours of freezing rain today, which will turn the city into a skating rink, make both driving and walking extremely hazardous and probably kill skiing and skating until the next snowstorm. Delivery of take-out comfort food will probably be cancelled and our car is already filthy again. If I were a certain kind of crotchety middle-aged man, I'd wish you and Bret sunburns, but of course I'm not.
18 comments:
Nice picture.
Looks like the river would just freeze anyway. I never could understand why anybody would live in Canada when they could live in Florida or So Cal.
We lived in Central Vermont for 15 years. Eight foot tunnels on either side of the driveway like those in Peter's picture were common. It doesn't sound like it could be, but it really was fun.
At age, 53, our kids all out of school and gainfully employed, we decided enough of this working nonsense and set out for a couple of years' adventure with only what we could fit in a Dodge Caravan.
Most fun I ever had.
We drove all over our own county, our neighbor to the north (alas not as far as Alaska) and our neighbor to the south.
I originally wanted to drive to Patagonia, but political conditions in the nether regions changed our minds.
When we got tired of living out of suitcases, we found a little town that time forgot in Florida and built a small beach house. Unfortunately, developers found us about ten years ago and since then it's been a constant battle to keep time out.
Sorry we never got to San Diego though -- heard tell it's heaven on earth.
I was born in Michigan, grew up in upstate New York, and went to college in Boston (Cambridge actually) so I've lived in snow. I left it the second I could. Yuck!
San Diego is not, of course, heaven on earth. It's got the usual corrupt politicians, etc.
But it is rather scenic, most of the people are pretty friendly, it has a reasonably diverse economy, and the weather is consistently very nice. It has the best of nothing, but pretty good everything. To rephrase the saying about New York, it's a great place to live, but I wouldn't want to visit there (though for some reason, there is a lot of tourism).
Bret, I should have been more specific, it's been said San Diego weather is heaven on earth, but it's nice to know it's a pretty nice all round place to live.
Living in the far north like Vermont, and I assume Canada, is far different from Massachusetts and Connecticut, where we lived for a long time, and probably even Michigan. The cold sets in and stays until the dreaded mud season about mid-March when everybody who can, departs for warmer climes. so there aren't many of those bone chilling cold, damp, drizzly days when the snow turns to slush then melts again ...
As Peter's picture shows, the snow stays crisp and white and can be shaken off one's boots unlike slush which can penetrate any foot gear made by the hand of man (or woman).
Today, as promised, we have 75 deg. and sunshine and even warmer temps are predicted in the next day or two -- with any luck, winter is over.
erp, I suspect you are suffering from a bad case of winter-nostalgia born of too many years in the sunshine state. Have you forgotten all those mid-winter thaws and rain/sleet storms that muck everything up?
Bret:
We survive by perfecting the art of winter-denial. Here are some examples of the things we tell each other to avoid going insane or murdering one another:
1. We Canadians are blessed to have four distinct seasons. Can you imagine how boring it would be to live in Florida?
2. Winter doesn't really start until the canal opens and it's pretty much over when it closes. About six weeks.
3. Yeah, this one is uncommonly cold and long. When I was a kid winter was only January and February.
4. Yes, it is bitterly cold, but it is soooo...sunny! Imagine how depressing it would be to live in San Francisco?
5. You can almost always count on a mild day afer every ten-day deep freeze. Imagine how awful it would be to live in Siberia?
6. You don't really notice winter if you dress properly.
7. The trick is not to stay indoors and get overheated. You don't really notice winter if you get out there and challenge it.
8. Sure it's cold, but just think about that dreadful summer humidity. Imagine how awful it would be to live in the Tropics?
Peter, I do remember the thaws, but they're short lived, not like the damp cold rainy sleety winters of MA and CT and even NYC.
Skating on the canal. Now that looks like fun and if I read the sky correctly, the picture was taken about 3:30 PM just before sunset.
Enjoy.
erp:
The canal is a marvel. The only problem in high winter is that it acts as a wind tunnel--anything more than a 3mph wind and it is a struggle going one way. Nonetheless it is a major attraction here and a big deal for thousands of hardy, healthy residents. Being neither particularly hardy nor healthy, my wife and I tend to talk about how badly we feel about not getting out on the canal more and then go skiing.
Cross-country skiing?
No, we leave that to the leftists.
Things haven't changed I see.
erp wrote: "...not like the damp cold rainy sleety winters of MA..."
When my wife first moved here to San Diego from MA, she was homesick for Boston. So I said, "Let's go for a little visit to Boston - I'll make arrangements." I arranged for us to be there mid-March. It was perfect! 35 degrees and raining the whole time! We were cold, miserable, drowned rats, slinking from bar to bar ordering hot chocolates with Bailey's!
She never wanted to go back to Boston again. Was I evil?
Yes, but it was for her own good.
Peter, that was really funny! Thanks for the laugh.
erp, winter is certainly bearable and has its upsides, but I find it's the little things that grind you down the longer it goes on. For the past six weeks, every car in Ottawa has been absolutely filthy, with windows smeared to the point of hazard. Unless you have a heated garage, you can't wash them because the locks will freeze. Yesterday it went up to freezing here for the first time since Xmas and so I grabbed the opportunity to wash ours. It felt like I had a new car! No, more than that. Angels descended, birds sang, etc.
Peter:
That was the funniest thing I have read in a long time.
++++
I grew up in Southern California, and went to USC.
After that, the Air Force decided where I got to live: lots of interesting and enjoyable places (the UK, in particular), and some not quite so (Clovis, New Mexico, and Del Rio, TX). No garden spots along the way, until my last assignment in Pensacola, FL.
Which we left for Detroit, then went even further north to Alaska.
Anyway, when you don't get to choose where you live, you have to be adaptable.
Yesterday, XC skiing for the first time, today snowshoeing up a glacial valley, with temps like they have been for about 18 months now: 10 degrees F below seasonal averages.
Anyway, as a Lance Armstrong wannabee, I should live in the Napa Valley. No such luck.
And, I must say, I am weak. The temperatures we have been enduring up here for over a year have made increasingly difficult for me to lie awake nights worrying about global warming, despite obligations to the contrary.
Hey, erp, I hate to interrupt your nostalgic daydreams of "crisp and white" snow until March, but they are calling for six hours of freezing rain today, which will turn the city into a skating rink, make both driving and walking extremely hazardous and probably kill skiing and skating until the next snowstorm. Delivery of take-out comfort food will probably be cancelled and our car is already filthy again. If I were a certain kind of crotchety middle-aged man, I'd wish you and Bret sunburns, but of course I'm not.
Well that's global warming for you. Stop driving and heating your homes and temps will fall again.
BTW - How do you (pl) like us now?
Post a Comment