YUCK WEATHER

[jedishampoo]

DANG this weather is awful. Since early December it's been a constant round of snow, bitter cold, snow, bitter cold, snow and then bitter cold. I'm talking temps in the single digits F or even negative F, so cold poor Fuu just cries if she has to go out to pee.

I don't think I can ever remember such a horrible winter. (Seriously, Canadians, how do you deal with it?) I'm going back west as soon as I can. I am alternately pressuring and cajoling my mom to pack up and go with me, because I know she likes a constant stream of sunshine and palm trees as much as I do. Or, at the very least, a winter with temps that don't really go below 45. ;)

Oh, and ICE! I have fallen on the ice several times this year despite having boots with good traction, because it's, well, constant ice! But at least usually I manage to just bruise or scrape my legs. A few days ago I was walking Fuu on the street over two-inch-thick ice covered with slushy snow, because, well, SOME PEOPLE don't clear their sidewalks when they shovel. I fell on my leg and dropped Fuu's leash, and stupidly jumped up to chase her and BAM! Down on my tailbone. I just sat there in the street wailing in pain and calling for Fuu until she came back (good girl) and then couldn't hardly walk for a few days. Thankfully the NSAIDs the doc gave me seem to be helping and I can walk again, hee.

Seriously, though, be careful out there, anyone in the same weather as us!

So I wrote a valentine_smut fic, and a Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan) fic. Man, first fic in a new fandom is always so hard! I may even post it, heh.

Oh, I may go to Macy's today because I need new socks. I've been wearing socks just to keep my toes warm and man, they wear out! I got so used to wearing open-toed shoes or going sockless all the time when I lived in Las Vegas.

Hugs, y'all!

Comments

[laurose8]

Sending a hug for warmth, and another one for the slip. And a cuddle for Fuu.

If my attempt to cheer you up isn't too depressing, spring is coming.

May you never have a winter like this again.

[jedishampoo]

No, no, I need to be reminded that Spring is Coming. :) ♥

[caeseria]

Ouch! That sounds painful! And poor Fuu! *hugs you both*

So.. wait - you are moving back West??! Any solid plans yet or just in the near future? Where are you headed? (*wants all the gory details*)

My parents have over four feet of snow. It's up to the top of the picnic table. We are not far off, we have about three feet and counting. They have run out of places to put the snow! Mind you, I didn't need the Weather Network to tell me it's the worst winter in over 25 years. Duh ;)

[jedishampoo]

Thanks for the hugs, baby! <3

No solid plans, no. I just ... I really don't have anything here except my mom, brother and friends. I won't leave my mom again, but if we could really leave this crap-ass place, it would be so awesome!

[rachel_riecheru]

*hugs to you too*

sorry to hear about the cold, I'll swap your endless winter for my endless summer :P

Keep warm and look forward yourself!

[jedishampoo]

Um, you'd really swap? Hah, I lived in a place with endless summer - and weeks in July and August when it was over 100F - and I LOVED IT. I MISS IT, lol. :)

Stay cool!

[rachel_riecheru]

I would swap right now! :P take the heat!! TAKE IT!!! XD

[jedishampoo]

YES, please! I'm like a lizard, who would bask in the 100-degree heat. If it was dryish, that is. (That would be, um, 38 C?) GIVE IT TO MEEEEE.

[rroselavy]

This has been a rough winter. My oil bill is killing me, and I keep the house at 62 during the day and overnight, 68 in the morning and evening. It's not just the cold and snow; it's all the cloudy days. Greyest winter in a long, long time ...

[jedishampoo]

Ack, I keep mine at 64 at night and when I'm gone, and at 70 when I'm here and awake - 68 is just a tiny bit too cold for me! But even at night it runs and runs when it gets down to single-digits or below, because it only takes a short time to drop from 70 to 64. My poor furnace.

And YES. I need some sunshine, plz. Sunshine not accompanied by 2 for a high, that is. :)

We'll get through it! WE WILL SURVIVE!

[7veils]

Sorry to hear it's so rough for you, your mom and Fuu.

What's your mom's situation like in terms of friends and family, jedi? Is she able to pick herself up and go, to maybe start afresh in a new community without looking back with too many regrets? Or does she have too many family and friends to whom she would need to say goodbye?

[jedishampoo]

I think I could convince her to move, maybe. She has just been here all her life and her closest sibling has died. Problem is, my brother wouldn't go anywhere. He will barely go more than three miles from the house, the twerp!

I know she would love somewhere pretty and warm, though. Sigh. I sure did!

How is your winter treating you? We're getting our Arctic Vortexes from the direction of Canada so it must be cold for you, too.

[7veils]

If her circle of friends has dwindled and the family network has all but died, I hope you can get her interested and active in a temperate new location. It can be very difficult for elderly people to start afresh in new places because it is through the force of habit and repetition that memory is built, and if you disrupt their memories, they can become quite disoriented and depressed. So the move would have to be to a community which has things she would be interested in and invigorated by, where she happily sets up new good memories. Fortunately, women tend to be better at this than men.

Winter ... Oh, god. It's pretty bleak alright, although our January was quite mild and wonderful. Right now, it's in the -20ºCs, but it's supposed to warm up on Wednesday, which is when I have to end the e-commute and manage the real commute. I am not looking forward to the spring, when all this snow melts. If we have a wet spring, then we will be in for another round of overland flooding. If that happens, then the government will not bail out flood victims again. They will lose their homes and the inner city valleys will be converted to parkland, which means we will lose our most beautiful and liveable communities. I don't know what the city will do about the downtown core, though. Probably insist that any highrises move their plants to a floor above the flood level.

[jedishampoo]

Wow, you had a mild January? And here's hoping you don't have as wet a spring/summer, so you (a) don't flood and (b) can plant and weed more properly than last year.

The flooding sounds terrible, though. I wonder if urbanization or growth has caused the spate of flooding, or was it a very flood-prone area to begin with? I know urbanization goes both ways, in both controlling and unleashing floods because of changed drainage.

Well, I'm forgetting Mom's social schedule - she's lucky in that she still has her core group of high school friends and they've kept in touch over the years. Now that their kids are grown they get together more often. I know she could get her club sisters to come out and visit us in a nice, warm place, however. :)

[7veils]

Calgary was built at the confluence of two major prairie river systems, and the flood plains are quite expansive, so I would say that the area was quite prone to flooding at one time, and probably was less so during the past hundred years or so because the glacial ice fields have dwindled to that extent since the last ice age. Now that extreme weather events have started up as a result of climate change, and because greedy resource extractors have clear cut in our watersheds, I expect we will see a lot more flood events — probably combined with periods of drought.

I hope your mom is amenable to moving in with you in a warm climate. Good luck and I hope it works out well. Are you thinking of going back to Nevada? Or one of the other SW states?