The War Against Winter

Dec 15, 2009 11:34

General Winter is back!
And only Young Geoffrey can stop him!

Read more... )

random gloats, war against winter, ottawa

Leave a comment

ahh snow jade_noir December 16 2009, 22:25:45 UTC
That is very noble of you to shovel even your neighbor's snow.

My first reaction to snow is generally (unless I have to get to the hospital): why bother shoveling it? Why not walk to the bus/train station or stay home + ration food?
It is so painful for me to shovel snow. It hurts my back and the cold hurts my knees. And my reasoning is that if you live in a city isn't the entire point so you don't have to drive anywhere?
(*lazy*)
Those don't look like city houses to me... but then again I'm used to street-long joint slithers of houses in Philly slums. Those look like suburb houses.

How cold is it there?

Reply

Re: ahh snow ed_rex December 16 2009, 22:35:47 UTC
That is very noble of you to shovel even your neighbor's snow.

Not really. The walkways in front are pretty minimal and, well, as I said, they did shovel out my father over the past two winters, so "I" owe them.

Which partially answers your question about the need for a car. My father, in his own words, is a "cripple" or "crip". One artificial hip and he's going into the hospital for a second one on the 23rd. Much pain + limited mobility = wants/needs to drive a car.

But you're right about the houses here. I'm a 25-minute (fast) walk from dead-centre downtown Ottawa and, yes, the houses here look like those in old suburbs. Rather than grow denser as it has grown more populated, it has instead spread out, like a cancer, a Los Angeles of the Ottawa Valley.

How cold? Meh. 'Bout minus 10 (C) just at the moment. We'll be seeing -20 or colder tonight or tomorrow, but I'll believe it when I need to actually throw on a parka.

Reply

Re: ahh snow jade_noir December 16 2009, 22:52:49 UTC
Ah yeah. It would be necessary for a cripple to get a car. I forgot about that for a moment.

Oh that's not tooo much colder than here. Winter weather is usually something averaging 0 C. We use Fahrenheit here but luckily I am one and a half years into training as a Chemist and we use Celsius in the lab.

Reply

Re: ahh snow ed_rex December 17 2009, 02:54:15 UTC
Also, he was born in '33 and so, came of age just as the era of the motor-car was really getting into high gear. In other words, he's used to it, both practically and symbolically. That I would actually prefer to walk or bicycle when practical is kind of alien to him.

And I figured you'd be familiar with Celcius. Had I been braver (and more competent), I'd have cited the temperature in degrees Kelvin - but didn't want you to mock me if I screwed up the conversion.

Reply

Re: ahh snow jade_noir December 19 2009, 00:36:25 UTC
Off the top of my little chemistry-filled head, the conversion is
C + 273 = K
since 0 K is absolute zero

Reply

Re: ahh snow ed_rex December 19 2009, 16:22:50 UTC
That sounds right. If I could memorize arithmetic tables as I once had multiplaction tables memorized I might start using K in general conversation, if only to be pretentious.

Reply


Leave a comment

Up