SleepingPoliceman

Tonight was the surprise birthday party for Lisa’s dad (which went incredibly well…he was totally shocked, meaning somehow the 100-ish people invited all kept it quiet). During the course of the evening, people would have to go outside the function hall for various reasons and then come back inside to say something along the lines of, “Good God, it’s so cold outside! I can’t believe how cold it is! It is really, really cold out there!” Lots of exclamation points going on, all with people complaining about the frigidity of the weather.

And I went outside a couple of times, and I just rocked it in my sweater…the jacket could stay inside. It was just running to the store or out to the car (not actually running, of course). And I felt it was fine. Chilly, sure…but manageable. So when people lamented how freezing it was outside, I would say to Lisa, “Yeah, yeah…whatever, these people are weak. Weak, I say!”

Then on the way home, I drove past a bank that has a clock and temperature sign outside. The current temp? 16 degrees.

So…yeah, it looks like it was really cold out. I’m sorry, Lisa and other guests I dissed. You were right. Mea culpa.

Ha ha. Good one. Oh, you’re such a card.

OK. Sure, I understand that I have spent all winter lamenting the lack of winter-weather. It hasn’t been that cold that often. There’s been no snow. Give me some snow, I lamented. We need more winter…more winter, I cried!

Now comes the one weekend where big plans that have been in place for months is upon us. And, of course, this is the weekend where you decide to send the snow crashing upon us. Roads are clogged, incoming flights are canceled, and journeys through upper New England are labeled treacherous at best.

Yes, Mother N., I do see the irony. I very much appreciate the irony. It’s quite delicious. Well done. Really…well done.

Now get the fuck out of my way…we’re still making it to Montreal.

Sunny and Windy 6°F Feels Like -16°F Updated Mar 6 09:00 a.m. ET UV Index: 1 Low Wind: From NW at 27 mph gusting to 38 mph Humidity: 30% Pressure: 30.09 in. Dew Point: -14°F Visibility: 10.0 miles

Looks like I picked the wrong day to quit taking gloves with me to work. Remember when winter was hiding? Guess it was just lying in wait until March. I like it.

I just hope Smarch isn’t too lousy this year.

No comment needed.

This really has to stop.

I know that some people don’t mind this trend, but it’s just not working for me. I’m all in favor of the occasional mid-winter day when it gets randomly warm…but this has been going on pretty consistently for this entire winter. We’ve had, what, two days when it was below freezing during the daytime?

As I have repeated ad nauseam to anyone around me, I really dig having four seasons. One of those four seasons is winter. Winter is the season when you can get all bundled up in your thick coats and your wool hats, you can pick up a hunk of snow and throw it at someone (preferably someone you know so they don’t beat the crap out of you), you can see your breath, you can feel that bite on your face when you walk out the door. And it’s cold and it’s overcast and it’s dreary, and the white snow on the bare tree branches makes the world a desolate Ansel Adams picture.

Then, when the novelty has worn off and you start to forget you ever had days when you wore shorts and peeled yourself off the couch because you were covered in sweat, when you think it will always be cold and you’ll always have to start your car ten minutes before you go anywhere…then you wake up and it’s 55 degrees outside. And you’re dressed up too much, so on the way to the car or the subway, you peel off your scarf and hat and maybe even your coat, and you see the buds on the trees and feel a warm breeze on your face…and it was all worth it.

And if you don’t believe in the romance of the cold dark winter, then remember this: weather karma’s gonna get you. 58 degrees in January either means 10 degrees in February, or 40 degrees in June. So when one of those things happen, and people are complaining about how awful the weather is in Boston and how winter never ends…well, just remember that this year we’ve been having spring from mid-November through early January (and counting).

Or maybe this is a permanent shift, and we’ll never have winter again. I hope not. Man, I really wish Al Gore hadn’t invented global warming. What a jerk.

fake edit: this is not to pick on Molly. In general, I find her stance to be understandable, though I don’t fully agree. There are other people I know who are much more emphatically anti-winter who trigger this response. They, however, don’t have blogs I can easily link to.

real edit: that ADVANCED WINTER STORM TRACKING! link on the lower right of that image is mocking me. Mocking!

From weather.com:

I know, it’s nice to have some warmer winter weather every now and then. But we’re going soft here. Someone, please, make it feel like Christmas here in Boston.

The South Florida contingent of SP is in the process of locking down the Fortress of Solitude. The storm doesn’t look too bad now, but we’re not taking any chances. We’re definitely moving at a much faster clip than we did last year putting up the shutters for Wilma.

In case you want to track the bastard, here’s the Sun-Sentinel’s page on Ernesto.

Seven shutters down, twelve to go!
/jz

Update: As of 3:00 PM, every shutter is in place. We’re awesome. We’re going to the gas station to treat ourselves to Coke Slurpees.

Update: No Slurpees! Damn. Had to settle for a large bottle of Sunkist. Oh well.

Final Update: Lame, lame, lame. But I can’t really complain because, hey, I’m not at work.

I talked about global warming in a previous post, and I just wanted to follow up with a link to a site that caught my eye. This is what my neighborhood will look like under seven feet of water (zoomed out). Here’s the zoomed in view.

The Bahamas? Gone.
New Orleans? Gone.

For you northerners, here’s Massachusetts under the same amount of water. It won’t be as bad, but Logan Airport would become a seaport and much of the nearby coastal towns will be significantly under water.

Something to look forward to.

Just last week, I read a thoroughly depressing (and downright frightening) article in Time Magazine about global warming (Time only offers a preview of the article, unfortunately, so that link is pretty useless) and how we’re all pretty much screwed.

Well, tonight I saw a preview of An Inconvenient Truth. While the trailer is overly melodramatic at times, it’s still very, very scary to imagine. Especially the part about my home being under water.

Yeah, good times.

The official site of the movie has a quick test you can take to see how much your way of life impacts the rest of the planet. My results were abysmal; Mother Nature has every right to wipe me off the face of the earth, and I really couldn’t blame her if she did.

When I was younger, I remember when the neighborhood all got recycle bins. We were ready to start helping the environment, even though it required more work on our part (separating out the recyclables from the rest of the garbage). Now recycling cans, bottles, and newspapers is second nature (for me, though I’m sure there’s still a great number of people who don’t recycle at all). But I always remember people saying that, by recycling, we were keeping the environment safe for our next generation.

Today, in the grand scheme of things, it probably looks like we’re using scotch tape to prevent the dam from bursting.

Bottom line: move inland. And do what you can to help.

Mark it: first snow of the year. It’s beautiful outside right now. I absolutely love snow. Especially when it’s supposed to be 60 degrees tomorrow.

Note: that’s file footage from a Google search, not a live picture. It’s not snowing that much. But there are big flakes and it’s sticking. I know JZ will disagree, but I love Boston weather. Seasons are amazing. Roll on, snow…roll on.