So Friday was unseasonably warm (yay!) - I actually had my jacket half-off when I walked into the purple line train. And instantly stripped it the rest of the way off, because it was well over 90 degrees in there - they still had the heat on full-blast.
Okay, first day of warm weather, maybe it takes them a while to adjust.
BUT IT WAS THE SAME DAMN THING THIS MORNING. Can’t I at least enjoy the last few days of warm weather? Do I have to sit for forty-five minutes each way in a frigging sauna full of sweating commuters? Can’t someone notice that it’s NOT FORTY DEGREES OUTSIDE and so they can TURN THE FRIGGING HEAT DOWN FOR A SECOND?
Just to spite me, they’ll probably turn the heat off tomorrow and leave it off until New Year’s Day.
I was wondering the same thing when I was shopping this weekend. See, Calgary is actually in Canada, and summer is technically over, but that doesn’t mean that we need the heat blasting in the stores yet. Heck, even in the dead of winter we don’t need the heat blasting in the stores because every shopper in there has THREE FRIGGIN’ LAYERS OF CLOTHING ON, CULMINATING IN A HEAVY PARKA! The weight I’ve sweated off, shopping for Christmas presents…
Fond Memories of Sweater Day - it’s officially the heating season - damn if it’s 90 out.
Waiting at the bus stop with 50 blue clad businessmen, I can see the two bus stops up the road - maxed out buses loading passengers. Japanese buses are quite large - near as I can tell it’s around 1000 riders each. The bus arrives, no one gets off, there is room for an ankle (maybe) but 5 bodies or so will push on. Windows covered with streaming condensed sweat on the inside. In small areas you can see compressed flesh (cheeks, noses, mouths, foreheads) flattened out like octopus suckers against cellophane in the grocery stores. I cram on, a massive gaijin, 6’2" and 200 lb. I live in a sea of advertisements hung from the ceiling. All around perspiration soaks through suits; a few plaintive yelps as more cattle push aboard at the remaining five stops. Forget breathing, you must synchronize heartbeats with your new “close” friends. The driver; window open wide with the defroster fan on and jacket off. Heater control on the nuclear fusion setting, the fan on eleven. Now down the hill to Kure, no more stops. No need to accelerate here, it’s an 8% downward pitch. The bus leeaannns way out on the turns over the chasm as you stare straight down 350’ to the raging torrent below. Across the river by bridge now; my eyes a thin plate of glass and several molecules distant from the rock wall. Finally, a blessed stop at the station, we flow out the doors to meet our next obstacle - the Train.