I love extreme weather, I really do. Even this cold spell is making me marvel. But I'm having a hard time reconciling my awe for dame nature and my hatred for this cold. I come from Southern California, born and raised. We wear shorts in the winter. We stick our tongues out at the cameras filming the rose parade. We cluck about how we live in God's country.
But I am no longer one of them. I am now the one watching the rose parade, flipping all those shorts wearing people off. I shiver more in a winter here than I did in 30 years in California.
At least there are no insects. They are all sleeping now. Apparently, the insects adapted to this climate burrow into the crooks of trees and into the ground to"hibernate", antifreeze coursing through their bodies waiting for the spring thaw. It's a cool trick and I wish I could do it.
20 comments:
And the warmer the winter, the more of them survive to annoy you the next summer.
And yes, this winter is considered war since we haven't even passed minus 25 yet.
Just like the insects and animals of the North you have become adapted and stronger. Just think what wimps those California plants and animals and people are. None of them could take below freezing Temperatures for even 5 minutes. You've become a survivor of the true Northland AKA a Canadien!
The wind chill here yesterday was significant for us. Even I did not want to stay out too long it it.
Isn't it interesting how we all adapt.
being raised in Indiana, I am used to the cold.....but I hate it all the same.
I'd trade a lack of insects for heat!
3 weeks ago, I was in 44 degree (C) heat, with grasshoppers the size of Cuban cigars.
Now all the bugs are hibernating, and it's hellishly cold.
I want the bugs back!
keep wearing your long-johns, your toque, and your scarf
warm up in bed with spouse
spring is coming
But don't you feel more polite now?
I'll settle for being a California wimp any day!
Hey, I had to wear a long-sleeved shirt yesterday when I walked the dog... it wasn't warm enough for shorts.
I'm sorry the weather is so foul for you right now. Hot Toddy time?
That's the very reason we are having such a horrific battle with the pine beetle devastation here. Thousands and thousands of trees have been destroyed and are still dying despite the cull. Vast areas we haven't even reached yet show that tell-tale reddish-brown from the air. The pine beetle produces glycols or sugar in their blood that act as an antifreeze, preventing them from freezing. To overcome the antifreeze and kill the larvae, winters have to be very cold and very long. Due to climate change we haven't had winters that are long enough or cold enough for the past several years. A minimum of 3 weeks at below -35 is needed. A gradual build-up of these warmer winters has produced the pine-beetle destruction which is maiming our beautiful forests and woods. Of course, Harper doesn't believe in such a thing.
i have decided it is officially too cold. once i am getting ice cream headaches through my hat and my scarf wrapped around my head (and the other 800 layers I was wearing) on the short walk from the bus stop to my office, it is officially too cold.
i heard the high today in toronto was going to be -25 with the windchill. -25? what the hell is that?!?!?!?!
The change of seasons is good for us. Winter makes us appreciate summer, and vice-versa.
Come late July and early August, when we are sweating and cursing the heat, our thoughts of snow and cold will make us say, "ah, remember February when the snow was deep, the winds were slicing our flesh, our bodies shivered with cold. Oh, how I wish it were SUMMER FOREVER!"
Believe it or not, I was going to say what Cooper said. It also applies to other bug infestations.
I feel your pain -- although not quite to the same bone chilling degree. We picked up a half a foot of snow yesterday and the temp was -20 with wind chill.
And yet I like it for some reason. Yeah, I'm just all kinds of crazy.
It's a cool trick and I wish I could do it.
Well, have you tried?
It's in the eighties out here, now. Crazy...
My office is a block from the East River, so as I approach my building, there is a blast of arctic air off the river than goes right through to the bone. It is ghastly.
I like that. You Canadians are too cold to cause any trouble.
Since moving to Southern California 18 months ago from Chicagoland, I've not regretted it. -9 (F) on Monday there, nearly 90 (F) here.
*sigh*
We've just got a sprinkling of the white stuff.
:>)
nah, i wouldn't want you to be able to do the bug hibernating trick because then i would be grossed out by you and want to squash you.
spring's gotta come eventually.
doesn't it?
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