Oh, suck it up. We've had a few days of rain, after a stretch of beautiful weather. People in other parts of the country would kill for weather like this.
You mean like to somewhere warm and dry?
Or do you mean to sack up and move back to Chicago?
Guantánamo's nice and balmy, with only the occasional hurricane/water-boarding.
Come to Massachusetts, Ogged. It was 60 degrees and sunny just recently.
Is the title a clever reference to something of which I'm not aware?
4: ...unless you are one of the lucky ones selected for the Total Sensory Deprivation routine. Also, sadistic manipulation of heating and air conditioning plus dousing with water whenever you try to sleep approximates bad weather.
Sitting in my room with a nice mug of hot spiced cider, yum.
In New York we hunt complaining Californians for sport by night through the green ways of Central Park.
I hiked through the snow about five miles yesterday. It's been hot chocolate, coffee, spiced tea with plenty of honey, hot chocolate and coffee---every single day since November.
A very good thing to do with your cider, however else you spice it, is to crack a healthy amount of black peppercorns in it, which will communicate a healthful warmth to your throat.
Now the East Coasters will gut you with an icicle.
Where else is there to go? San Diego, I suppose?
12: And bury him in the snowdrift, uptight weakass motherfucker.
For some reason, Cala's 16 brought to mind the image of Frosty the Snowman wandering down a street in Baltimore, saying "Aaayooo."
15: nice.
14: Right now L.A. blows. One might think the drivers here would have enough sense not to huddle together for protection while speeding up shorten their exposure to the hostile elements whenever they see a little rain on the windshield.
One would be incorrect.
A very good thing to do with your cider, however else you spice it, is to crack a healthy amount of black peppercorns in it, which will communicate a healthful warmth to your throat.
That does sound like an excellent idea.
Will no one explain the title?!?
Weather wimpiness trumps real estate lust. Good thing; otherwise, we'd have our National Guard units massed at the southern border.
22: Oh, sure, now you bitch about a bit of exegesis. And what about "end stage"?
He's getting soft because he is an antique near the end of his useful life.
24: Well, until recently, I would have bought that the part of him that seemed endlessly soft was near the end of its useful life.
Come to retire in Dallas. I checked out LA and 55 and raining? I don't blame ya.
We gots 66, 68, 82, 65+ and sunshine for two weeks comin.
24: Alternatively or perhaps concurrently, "end" is shorthand for "rear end", his growing softer and softer by the hour, as he lulls away the evenings on the couch watching romantic comedies with a bass-playing maiden, whose youthful repose contrasts his decaying decaying fortitude.
There are no maidens playing bass. Even that chick from White Zombie just got married.
a bass-playing maiden
I cannot read that (proper) spelling without imagine a performance artist playing a fish.
11:How exactly does one crack a peppercorn?
With the taut, muscular buttocks of a bass-playing maiden.
Warm here with clear skies. 34 degrees.
I don't care what the temperature is, it's the rain and lack of sunlight that are killing me.
The days are getting longer all the time!
35: It was partly cloudy most of yesterday (at least in The City). Maybe you should try looking out the window.
I don't really mind the rain, but then I think that's the result of having grown up through a few particularly serious California droughts. Not enough rain (based on my unscientific hunch/paranoia) and I have flashbacks to the era of 'if it's brown, flush it down. if it's yellow, let it mellow.'
Plus, the rain here makes me happy when I think of all that lovely snow happening in Tahoe... Oh, why did we leave all of our warm things in a storage unit on Santa Monica Blvd.? Why?
I go outside every day, desk jockey. How many days of sunshine have we had in the last thirty?
I don't care what the temperature is, it's the rain and lack of sunlight that are killing me.
Move to Modesto.
I lived in Alameda once. Not exciting, but there were lots of days when the bay was ringed with fog or clouds but Alameda was sunny. And it has a beach! And (at least when I was there) a ferry to City.
How many days of sunshine have we had in the last thirty?
At least 10? Believe Wunderground if you won't believe me. (That page understates the number of sunny days, 'cause it counts a day as rainy even if it only rained for part of the day.)
Look at how January ended! 11 straight rainy days. And February looks sunnier than it's been, since they have sunshine forecast for the rest of it. I can't take it anymore!
There's a good but hyper-twee band from Modesto called El Olio Wolof.
The most beautiful I've ever seen the South Bay was in 2006 when for a few days the tops of the mountains hills were covered in snow.
The appeal of living in San Francisco is the opportunity to string piano wire across the street during "Critical Mass." That and all the iBooks.
The appeal of living in San Francisco is the opportunity to string piano wire across the street during "Critical Mass."
Fuck you.
Isn't Chris Isaak from Modesto?
Stockton, as noted above. On the other hand, Modesto is the home of Gary Condit and Scott Peterson (and a number of my relatives).
Isn't one of our favorite people here from Stockton?
The appeal of living in San Francisco is the opportunity to string piano wire across the street during "Critical Mass."
Am I going to get my liberal card revoked for laughing at this?
You get your liberal card revoked for using piano wire to suspend habeas corpus.
One should take care to ensure the piano wire does not snap and drop habeas corpus on a helpless populace.
You know what makes winter better? Hot baths and Mr. Bubble. When you're lying neck-deep in a just-short-of-too-hot tub of bubble-gum-smelling water with piles of bubbles over your shoulders and face, you don't care that it was 10 degrees and windy as hell for the last week or two straight.
Add Tuaca, Coke, and pizza as necessary.
drop habeas corpus on a helpless populace.
You want this body? Here it comes, bitches!
Look at how January ended! 11 straight rainy days.
Dude. We had something like 100 rainy days in a row last winter. You can't see my fingers, but I'm simulating the tiniest violin in the world, playing just for you.
The title of the post was self-mocking, but that's not enough for you people, is it?
And seriously, 100 rainy days in a row = suicide right on the stage.
I'm outta here. I'll take my sympathy when I get back, thanks.
the tiniest violin in the world
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_CfkOZ192M
i keep this mixture for rainy days :)
60: I got super sick of the weather there by the time I moved. Okay, it's sunny and warm-ish a lot, but when is it, like, warm? It didn't help that I was living in the middle of the bay.
If you really want to be a wuss about weather San Diego is definitely the way to go.
but when is it, like, warm?
The summer in the South Bay is like this. Warmer than some of the Southern California coast.
Summer here is as glorious as winter sucks, but we're not supposed to tell outsiders about that.
On my way back from Las Vegas yesterday I stopped in Santa Fe and had dinner with my sister. She said living there meant she'd had to get used to the idea of a real winter, where it snows a lot and the snow sticks around, rather than the sort of winter we have in Albuquerque where it snows two or three times and all the snow is gone in a couple of days. While we were in the restaurant it started snowing, then I set off for Albuquerque in the snow, which turned to rain as soon as I got out of Santa Fe.
63: sure, same with Marin. Same with pretty much everywhere in the Bay besides SF and Treasure Island, coincidentally where I was spending all my time.
65: Charlottesville is sort of on the cusp. It's freaky to drive ten minutes and see "blizzard" turn into "rain with some unfortunate but bearable wind". Or vice versa.
You want to know what rocks? A chilly, lightly snowy night on Cape Cod, sitting by a fire in a ludicrously cozy bed and breakfast, while your wife has fallen asleep in the other chair one page into her new book.
Suckers.
67: Yeah, the Piedmont's a similar sort of area to this part of NM. Santa Fe's literally in the mountains, and they're big fucking mountains, so the weather up there is significantly colder and harsher than the weather down here, even though it's only an hour away.
Snow on the cape is spectacularly nice. Getting snowed in on the cape is among the funnest of things.
I've been unable to move my car for at least three weeks. First it was too cold to start. Then it started, but was plowed in. Then the snow partially melted, but not enough to move it, & now it's in a three inch block of ice. February is 4 degrees colder on average for a Chicago winter, & we've gotten about twice as much snow as normal & apparently it's one of the cloudiest winters on record. I'd like the snow, if it would melt instead of sticking around for three weeks & becoming a solid dog-pee encrusted mass that won't go away.
I have sympathy for Ogged. This is a miserable, cold, windy rain, and the lack of sunshine is making me irritable.
74: cheer yourself up by putting on some makeup!
cheer yourself up by putting on some makeup
I somehow misread "makeup" as "ketchup" and thought Sifu was even weirder* than I thought.
*in a good, uh, weird sort of way
Overheard on Hennepin Avenue in downtown Minneapolis an hour ago:
Young woman: "No, but this is really nice for here."
Young man, grumbling: "I know it's nice."
And it's only 25 above. Not at all windy though. So yes, fairly pleasant.
Did all the donuts have names that sounded like prostitutes?
72, 73: It's a magical place, I swear!
Damn, this is a boring weekend.
Chicago was nice today. I was here to say goodbye probably to my grandmother, who has lived a long life. I played the ukulele for her in the hospital, and made faces at her (she's blind).
teo, I actually thought of not posting that but in the spirit of honesty I did so anyway...
the winter is basically the only feasible explanation for why a city this great is, compared to NY, Boston, DC, & Cali, such a good deal rent-wise. So if you have an above average tolerance for winter, which I do, it makes some sense. What's getting me this year that each winter here has been colder than the last, & each month has been colder than the last--Feb was worse than Jan--so it feels like it could last indefinitely.
I do actually have an above-average tolerance for winter, so Chicago doesn't sound so bad.
I'm starting to wonder how I ever survived five years in Chicago.
81: I doesn't hurt to have a high tolerance for hot, humid summers, either. Chicago, in my experience, has between six and eight weeks of genuinely good weather per year. Sorry, in a good year.
Couldn't be that 'cause I only had stove access my last two years. And it isn't weird, you so-and-so! It's great!
I will admit that making cider with cardamom, orange, and pepper, and then spiking it with Pernod (actually Herbsaint but who's watching?), might strike some people as weird. But it's actually delicious, so.
84: Wuss. Consistantly 80-90 degree days in summer are the universe's way of saying "You're welcome". It's only Taste of Chicago that's really hellish, but you're asking for it when you pack in next to a few hundred thousand people and several hundred ovens and grills in the middle of summer.
Besides, you need it hot to really appreciate the 65 degree lake water.
I[t] doesn't hurt to have a high tolerance for hot, humid summers, either.
This could be more of a problem for me.
80-90 degrees is not "really hot".
90 and 91 are correct. I'm reconsidering 89.
I doesn't hurt to have a high tolerance for hot, humid summers, either.
After living in the Bay Area for 12 years, I've come to find myself actually missing really hot, humid summers. Magpie and I went to Austin a couple of years ago in August for just that reason.
(What I really miss is summer nights. It's nice to be able to sit outside at night without freezing your ass off.)
80-90 degrees is not "really hot".
When it's 90% humidity too? Goddamn right it's really hot.
88 is correct. Last year, on a very hot, humid August day, me and a friend wandered over to the lake and the cold, fresh water is like goddamn elixir of awesome.
You know what city really sucks when it gets hot and humid? London. Nothing is air-conditioned, not even the fucking subways and certainly not apartments, and even the theatres are not, 'cause they're old. I was there during a heat wave for two weeks in 06 and I thought I might die.
In addition to the city beaches, Chicago boasts proximity to the Indiana and Michigan dunes, both a day trip (Michigan's a stretch—but you could camp and stay for the weekend!). These places are lovely.
(What I really miss is summer nights. It's nice to be able to sit outside at night without freezing your ass off.)
You can do this in the Bay Area - without the humidity - if you're outside of the reaches of the fog. That was one of the things I liked about the summer I spent in the South Bay.
I spent a summer in DC once. I doubt Chicago's worse.
I've heard that in Chicago little cats are responsible for all the fog.
Teo: not to discourage, but Chicago definitely seems colder than DC. Catherine's probably the most qualified to say, but I've lived close enough to both to say so with confidence.
That said, you might look dashing in scarves. And ski masks.
humid summers? Chicago? No way. It's hotter than NY but feels cooler. And certainly nothing like D.C.
I've always lived near the lake, which helps, I suppose.
indiana dunes? what are those?
that is my main complaint: I don't really get out of the city, I find most of Illinois flat, ugly, & depressing. I hear that there are pretty places in Wisconsin but they tend to be a pretty long drive.
Teo: not to discourage, but Chicago definitely seems colder than DC.
Cold isn't a problem.
103: Having visited Chicago many times, that's my main complaint: great city, boring backyard, and too long a drive to get to the wilderness.
Oh, Chicago's colder than DC for sure. Probably not as bad in the summer, either. There only tends to be one week in the summer, maybe, when it will be really bad. I mostly just feel sorry for people who have to wear suits to work.
I can't believe I'm going to bed before midnight every night this weekend.
The weather is pretty nice here now. 70s and 80s in the days, 50s at night. But it never gets much colder, there's no winter, hardly really a fall or spring to speak of. Which kind of sucks.
Right now, were close to the best weather all year. It'll start to get hot an humid before long. It's too wet here in the summer to get really hot, just low 100s. But what really sucks isn't the midday highs, it's when you're still 90-100% and 90s in the middle of the night.
indiana dunes? what are those?
Lovely chunks of sand along the lake, accessible by car and, apparently train. Link. Also what I knew as "beach" until we moved to Virginia.
108: easily a day trip, by the way. Check it out.
That's a shitty drive from Chicago to the dunes. The Calumet Region is a hellhole.
Houston is hell on earth. Been there in the summer. No fucking thank you.
88, 90, 91: You can all try to shout me down, but Teo will be coming from New Mexico, where any summer humidity at all is part of a monsoon. And having spent four summers in Madison and two in Chicago, it's really humid there. Not to mention, I see that nobody is challenging my claim that there are a maximum of eight weeks of nice weather per year in Chicago.
What Teo really needs to do is to come to graduate school in history at Davis. Where the summers are... Oh. Forget it.
113: Ah, it's not as bad as all that. Doesn't get that hot. Definitely unpleasant though. But hey, summers only abut 5 months or so here.
sigh.
The Calumet Region is a hellhole.
Unless you live there. Then it's an hour or so.
Salt Lake gets hot, but not bad as it's very dry here. There's days that go above 100, but not that suicide inducing heat like Phoenix and Vegas.
You can all try to shout me down, but Teo will be coming from New Mexico, where any summer humidity at all is part of a monsoon. And having spent four summers in Madison and two in Chicago, it's really humid there.
Sure, but I've experienced humidity before. I spent a summer in DC and another in Philadelphia, and I've been to Houston in the summer several times. Are you claiming that the humidity is worse in Chicago than in those places?
Also, I'm not actually moving to Chicago.
It's not that bad.
118: Comparable to Philly, I think, much better than Houston or DC. Which are both better than New Orleans, which is the worst I've experienced. Well, Houston's probably pretty similar. They're both beastly. And unrelenting.
The bad thing about Houston summers isn't really the individual days, few of them are really horrible by themselves, it's months of them on end without a break. Houston summers are like Montreal winters that way.
That looks a little bit close to scenic Gary-by-the-sea, though.
Really, it seems like every place in the eastern half of the US has hot, humid summers.
So you're coming to Davis then?
Can you give me a compelling reason to come to Davis?
That looks a little bit close to scenic Gary-by-the-sea, though..
White People™ everywhere drive onward to Michigan for this very reason. (Fair is fair: I haven't been in about five years; but it's a great beach.)
126: We dispense knowledge by the quart.
Can you give me a compelling reason to come to Davis?
The top enology department in the country, for one.
On preview, what Ari said, though "by the quart" should be "by the 750ml."
Come on, JmcQ. "Œnology", please. Remember where you are.
Ha! I had that originally, but changed it because the school spells it with an e; remembering where I was, I guessed that this might raise issues of orthographic authority.
124: That looks a little bit close to scenic Gary-by-the-sea, though..
It really is a decent place with some interesting history (and yes, semi-close to some awesome industrial and post-industrial landscapes) and if there has been steady breezes from due north for a few days, you can get something approaching surf.
Hey Gary,
Suck my lake
... Michigan
I didn't take Introduction to Wine in undergrad, though I could have, so I'm unlikely to be swayed by Œnology.
It's never too late to walk the true path, teo.
136: The man speaks truth, teo. My co-blogger is currently making wine among Kiwis and speaking in tongues. Purple, cab-sav-colored tongues, but tongues, nonetheless.
I can always, like, buy wine and drink it.
138: No sense of adventure, this one.
We'd gladly take all your rain, ogged. The lakes around here have shrunk horrifically over the last year.
Can you give me a compelling reason to come to Davis?
Having been raised in Davis, I would say that since you do not have a family (it is a great place to raise kids) being paid to do so is about the only compelling reason to move to a boring college town surrounded by tomato fields.
sunny day! may be it's freezing outside
the last last summer here it was so humid, i couldn't sleep at night, had to put on wet nightgown, that way it was cooler
i ordered an aircon online and waited almost 2 mo, when i called them they said i can retrieve the order and they'd charge 15% for not fulfilling the order?! and they charged it, f@#$% scam
last yr it was not that bad, almost did not notice how the summer was, being almost all day long in the lab and at night there was the aircon noisy but effective
read you can swear here if you want.
How exactly does one crack a peppercorn?
Cooks magazine recommends putting them on a hard surface and rubbing the bottom of a heavy skillet over them with extreme prejudice.
I typically use a mortar and pestle, but if you don't have that, putting the peppercorns in a ziplock baggie and pounding the shit out of it with a mallet works well also.
can i? ok, i will
in my language even may be
Fuck yeah I'm always up to learn some foreign swear words.
what if i'll teach very polite words instead of swearing, that would be fun - if during the fight one says thanks very angrily
You don't need to move, ogged. You just need one of these.
(Disclosure: I receive sexual favors for each person who clicks through.)
Do you hold those favors in escrow until the through-clicker can claim them?
re: 96
The underground is always sweltering there. I was in London this weekend and had forgotten how unpleasant it can be.
I saw blue sky every day this week. I don't know what Ogged's getting his undies in a twist about.
You can do this in the Bay Area - without the humidity - if you're outside of the reaches of the fog.
Therein lies the problem. I don't actually want to live anywhere that's outside the reaches of the fog.
What's wrong with the weather? It's beautiful! Yes, I'll have another Mai Tai, my dear ....