“Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.”
- John Ruskin
Image via Eirik Solheim/Wordpress
Today we are (hopefully) getting our final snow storm – a lake-effect style storm, announced a couple of days ago. Outside the window it is only lightly snowing so far, but the streets have turned white again. Unfortunately, the entire boiler/heating system in the whole building is broken. The entire apartment is as cold as frozen French fries in a grocery store freezer. From early this morning, I have been forced to walk around in a warm sweatshirt and my feet keep slowly transforming into ice crystals. I took a hot bath but it didn’t help for long; half an hour later, my body began to adapting to the surrounding temperature. I hope that our building handyman can quickly repair the heating boiler otherwise I cannot imagine the day with my chattering, barking teeth. Today I wish I could live in a more “temperature-friendly” environment.
On the other hand, people who leave in hot climates would probably freeze during a nice, sunny fall day in my state. While I was visiting our friends in San Francisco last summer with my Sweetie, I was really surprised to see people walking around in winter coats, high boots and gloves and scarfs. I had totally different image of this California cities, which I had imagined to be a cities full of people in shorts, swimming suits and bikinis. Then we landed in San Francisco. For us, who were walking around in shorts and t-shirts like many other tourists, the weather there was warm and friendly. Even in the coolest day I was still wearing shorts; to be honest, I didn’t even bring any warm clothes with me. “That’s how people can tell you are tourists…” – said our friend, Chris.
I think there is always something different that we want, something we feel we are missing, no matter where we live. I sometimes miss warm and nice weather on chilly days like today, when I can’t feel warm and feel as though my feet are turning to stone from the cold – stone cold feet! People in California must miss cooler weather because it seems like they use any opportunity to wear winter clothes any time the temperature drops a couple of degrees, while all the tourists feel blessed to be under a sunny sky, breathing fresh, clean air. And what about Canada, where the temperature fluctuates a lot – do they dream about tropical islands under sunny skies?
For sure, there are days when I feel like I would like to live in a warm, tropical environment with a nice, constant – and warm – temperature. On the other hand, I am sure I would miss the seasons. In my head, every season has something special about it and it’s those differences that make me look forward to the season changes. I fear I would get bored with nice, consistent and never- changing weather when I ultimately enjoy seeing Nature transform with the different aspects of every season.
Ugh… I am still cold…Half of the day has already passed and our heating system still isn’t working. The radiators are cooler than our refrigerator… Maybe I should reconsider my point of view on that nice warm locale… For now, I have to get back to my studies and finish a couple of projects, so I can start my week free from distractions…
Great post – I wsh it were warmer but I do love the snow, too…
wish, darn it!
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