Monday, January 11, 2010

OK....I'm sick of this cold weather

I don't know about y'all but I've had about a gut full of this Arctic blast. One of the reasons I choose to stay in the South is because of the mild winters. I'll never understand how people survive in the northern states where the winter temps are often below zero and almost always below freezing for at least 4 months out of the year. In North Dakota and Nebraska last week it was an astounding -30 (at least). How can one live in temps like that? Geez....imagine their winter energy bills!! Seems like if you went outside in temps like that you'd freeze and shatter on the spot.

And a better question....WHY would anyone live where it gets that cold? I, and probably a lot of other people in the South, don't even have a wardrobe for this kind of cold and I can't seem to get enough cover on my bed.

Anyway...I'm ready for this mess to be over.


7 comments:

Don said...

Loretta, I can’t recall the year, but it must have been in the late 1970s, the 1980s or early 90s when I lived on Lake Jordan (in a house later sold to Dr. and Mrs. Janie Baker Clarke who ran for the Democratic nomination for state auditor in 2006 and whose brother, John Baker, was once Chairman of the Democratic Party in Alabama – yes, I’m name-dropping :-) ) when we had prolonged even colder weather than we have now.

An ice storm knocked out our power. It took around 2 weeks for Alabama Power to restore it. We had sub-freezing temperatures day and night long enough for the surface of the lake to freeze so much that you might walk on the ice without it breaking. We took the contents of our 20 cubic foot chest freezer outside to make sure they didn’t thaw out.

Fortunately we had a fireplace and a supply of firewood. We had to live day and night in the den where the fireplace was located. We slept on the floor in front of the fireplace, I in a mummy-style army surplus down-filled sleeping bag and my wife under a pile of blankets and quilts. We melted snow and ice over the fire for water. We cooked over the fire. We used pots in that room rather toilets because we had to close and drain our water lines to keep our pipes from bursting and the pump at our water well wouldn’t work without electricity anyway.

Those were NOT “the good old days”, but they were very much like days many of our ancestors lived through and thought not much about it. It was just the way things always were to them back then.

We should all be thankful for the modern conveniences we have today.

sixstring said...

Many of the northerners can't take our summers.

Anonymous said...

we are from irondequoit ny east of buffalo north of rochester right on the lake . very cold winters tons of snow .But one thing i learned after moving south.. In the winter you can build a fire and bundle up and indulge in your favorite warming activitys .Down here in the summer you are screwed because there is only so much clothing you can remove before offending some one .You would think that people who grew up in that oppresive august heat would be more understanding about sitting on the porch in nothing but your drawers when its a 110 degrees in the shade and the humidity feels like a damn rain forrest on the equator. But damn if they dont like that one bit..

Loretta Nall said...

anon...did you have a bad encounter with the southern drawers police? Your whole post cracked me up.

And yeah summers are BRUTAL down here. I bitch a lot about them, too :)

Anonymous said...

no but when we first moved south the heat was unbearable to usand the neighbors complained once after that I figured I got off with a warning w/o having the cops involved dont push my luck being I was partaking at the time and was terrified of southern cannabis laws back then. that was like 30 years ago they wern't the open minded commpassionate understanding L.E.O.'S that we have in the new south.

Loretta Nall said...

"openminded compassionate LEO's we have in the New South"

Uh...where would this new south be?

sixstring said...

Good one, anon.... "New South"....