Monday, July 7, 2008

It's Not Hot You Big Babies

The weather is sooooo beautiful in Seattle right now. It's just perfect--sunny with highs in the upper 70's or lower 80's. The mountains are all out showing off, and the lakes and bay are glittery blue, and there is just no place prettier in the world right now. For reals. I'm getting a little misty-eyed right now just typing about it.

But does that stop Seattlites* from complaining about the weather? No it does not! We enjoy complaining about the weather, and we perservere no matter what the conditions! "It's too hot," all the patrons in the library say to me. "I just walked two whole blocks and I almost sweated! It's seventy degrees in the shade!! How can we LIVE LIKE THIS?!"

Seattle, can I just tell you one thing? 76 degrees is not hot. I mean, it's not even close. I'm from Alabama. I'll show you hot.

To be fair, I know that I am a wimp about the cold. I complain about it all winter, which is not only annoying but also deadly boring to anyone forced to be around me. To me, 39 degrees and raining is pretty bloody cold. Hardier people are always saying things to me like, "This isn't cold! Why, when I was a child in Minnesota/Alaska/Siberia, we would go outside in our underwear when it was 20 degrees below zero and roll around in the snow and then take a quick dip in the frozen river until several of our appendages fell off! And we FUCKING LOVED IT! This is like a lovely spring day to me and my GoreTex hide!"

And you know, those people are right. I wouldn't enjoy that.

But grant me this at least: 76 degrees is a pleasant temperature to most people who are not insane, isn't it? I mean, we northern North Americans spend a buzillion dollars every February to go to Mexico and Hawaii, so SOMEBODY must think 76 degrees and sunny is a tolerable situation. Right?


*Not ALL Seattlites. Many Seattlites--probably even most--do have the good sense they were born with. The complainers are just a very vocal minority.

6 comments:

Librarian Girl said...

Well now that you went and brought up this topic, I gotta chime in.

Here's what gets me. The people who complain about ANY WEATHER WE HAVE. Yes, some of us may complain about the cold, but then we shut up when it gets warm. Others complain about the heat but then shut up when it gets cooler. But then there are those that are TOO HOT AND TOO COLD LIKE BIG DANG CROWDS OF GOLDILOCKS.

Those are the ones that get me.

librarianista said...

TOTALLY. I complain about the cold, which is dumb because I knew it was cold when I moved here. But I'm happy as a clam anywhere between about 60 and 100 degrees.

It seems like lots of people here, on the other hand, are only happy between 61 and 64 degrees. You know?

Make!Do! said...

Ha ha, is the local news blaring stories about the "Heat Wave" yet with stories of how to cool down? That always used to crack me up in the PNW, especially now that I'm in NC where you are right - this is HOT. But I'm not complaining, honest.

Anonymous said...

Oddly, Texas is the first place I've lived where people seem resigned to the weather. No one who lives here complains much. In Chicago, on the other hand, complaining/exclaiming/trading horror stories about getting through the winter is practically an art form.

librarianista said...

Make!Do!: YES. The very first warm day, the front page of the newspaper had a big list of Emergency Heat Preparedness Actions You Should Take. It was maybe 83 degrees. No humidity of course, with a very pleasant breeze.

Lisa said...

76 is chilly, baby! Pass me a sweater!

It's rainy in Virginia this week, so we've not had temps much over 90.