As it applies to my situation, there’s a sound logic to preferring the cooler times of year over the warmer: It’s more practical for daily life, which arguably comprises the greatest chunk of one’s existence.
I hear summer “fans” go all ga-ga over summer because of the romanticized versions of it they have in their minds. Swimming or surfing at a beach, boating. Unless you’re close to them you generally can’t indulge in these unless you’re in a vacation type setting. Daily life of work and chores is a sweaty grind, and the heat and humidity really saps most of the pleasure from leisure time activities outdoors. In the cooler part of the year I actually like doing work outdoors, and outdoor leisure activities are just as fun, as long as it doesn’t involve going in the water.
Disclosure: I’m in the southeastern US, so winters can be cold but rarely bitter, and the 5 inches a year of snow we average doesn’t make daily-life driving in the snow an issue very often at all. I get most of my work done between November and March, April the latest. Well, except the past 5 months; where it seemingly rained for 3 or 4 days every two days in a very predictable pattern.
Could be he/she has been pining for winter to be over and it might feel somewhat therapeutic to do a warm weather activity.
I’m in no hurry to do my first mow, and always vow to wait until at least the first week of April. Once I “break the ice” of doing the first mow, the grass goes into ninja-mode and I’ll be cutting that shit every week until November.
Ahhh… from purely a climate perspective, I do love the transition season, when neither heating nor cooling is required. I have the window open again for beautiful fresh air, and the fucker with the impact wrench is long done his tire changing and is apparently at work today anyway.
(Shortly after my post yesterday lamenting all the noise, he was finally done. And I opened with window again. And then it started up again, because the fucker has two cars, and was naturally doing them both. Two cars, eight tires, 16 removal/mounting cycles, at least 5 lug nuts each; total = 80 times the noisy fuck got to play with his impact wrench, spread out over hours.)
But it’s still not perfect. There is still the annoying sound of some ambitious individual somewhere in the distance doing something mechanical – no doubt in joyous celebration of spring – and of a distant yappy dog, doubtless equally celebratory. But at least it’s distant. There was once a yappy dog right night door, but fortunately it appears to have been either poisoned or shot by like-minded neighbours, or possibly by the owners themselves who finally got fed up with it. Note that I absolutely love dogs, but a so-called “dog” approximately the size of a paramecium is not actually a dog, it’s a form of bacteria.
Maybe they’re English? Mothers’ day here was last weekend…
Spring’s nice here, and it’s not like summer’s likely to be hot- it was warm enough today that I was going to dry my washing on the line outside- except I just discovered that the back garden from this (rental) house is shared with the neighbours, and they had workmen round, who were doing outside work. I hadn’t been sure from the setup if they had access or not, but that would explain why I keep getting cigarette smoke blow in through my bedroom window, given that no-one in the house smokes.
I do like summer (our summers in the Seattle area are usually mild) so I’m looking forward to it. My house and car have good air conditioning so the heat isn’t a big deal. There are outdoor projects that are impractical when it’s colder and especially when it’s WET like it is most of the year, but summer is when I get those things done. And I don’t have to drive my kid to school every morning. I have practical reasons to like it.
My favorite time of year (not for practical reasons, just sentimental ones, just my feelings) is the fall, specifically around Halloween (late October/early November). For some reason the feeling of the air, the smell of leaves falling, it fills me with a completely unreasonable and unexplainable peace and contentment.
I usually complain about summer, but this year I can’t.
After being snowed in, and practically unable to go anywhere for a whole month, twenty-eight days of subzero temperatures and black ice on the roads, and huddling under blankets in our living room, and swearing at nature…
… I am morally obligated to shut my mouth and just appreciate the fact that my teeth are not chattering for the next nine months.
My favorite time of year (not for practical reasons, just sentimental ones, just my feelings) is the fall, specifically around Halloween (late October/early November). For some reason the feeling of the air, the smell of leaves falling, it fills me with a completely unreasonable and unexplainable peace and contentment.
Me, too, and I always remember the book “The Marshmallow Ghosts”… captures the ethos. The illustrations are wonderfully grey-and-orange-ish and autumnal-feeling.
When I first smell burning leaves and crisp air: “Ahhh…finally, Marshmallow Ghosts season.”
My views of the seasons have changed somewhat. The older I get, the more I dread the coming of winter, and the more I look forward to the coming of spring. The older I get, the more things my younger husband has to do for me, and this is compounded in winter.
Brilliant and highly-educated people can still be clueless about, and even fearful of technology. Some of the worst people I’ve had to support in IT were medical doctors when I worked for a medical software company. It’s like their head was crammed so full of medical information that there was no room for anything computer-related.
She was a database administrator. It’s like she forgot everything about anything computer related as soon as she walked off the job. I think maybe she was never all that interested in it to begin with.
I have to go get stupid cavities filled at the stupid dentist. I hate the dentist. And I always have weird dental anxiety dreams like my teeth falling out. I think I’m going to spend some time with my good friend Ativan today.
Is there some kind of shortage in water heater parts now? The flame went out on mine last week; I finally called the service that installed it after my troubleshooting accomplished nothing. They were able to get it going again, and diagnosed the problem as a faulty gas control valve. Everything was still under warranty, and the technician said he would even ask the manufacturer to expedite the part.
It’s now been a week, and the part is nowhere to be found. I’m glad this isn’t an emergency.
More anti-summer rants. So I did in fact make it down to my favourite little store in the big city, and loaded up the trunk with wonderful [perishable] goodies. I was hoping that the weather would allow them to still stay nice and cool, as it’s only mid-March and just barely a few days into spring – this is Canada, dammit, where there should still be a good chance of a nice big snowstorm at this time of year. No way. It was 67 freaking degrees 'Murrican on the way home! Most people were out in short sleeves. I saw one guy in shorts. I had to wait for someone and it was close to two hours before I got home. I guess the stuff is OK, but it would have been far better to have normal March temperatures. Soon it will be in the 90s.
Assuming it was frozen and the box it was in was still intact that wouldn’t have bothered me; I’ve heated up many a frozen dinner over the decades that didn’t have a fully intact plastic cover and suffered no ill effects other than heartburn and obesity.
Then again I understand why you threw it away, though I wouldn’t have bothered pulling it out of the box first. It’s Lean Cuisine.
Honestly, if the box itself was sealed, I don’t really see the problem. The main reason for the plastic seal is to maximize its freezer shelf life, not to provide anti-tamper security.
I’m glad this isn’t an emergency.