Bees - Cold Weather

[Black Bart]

You may be right about the rednecks turning into icicles when venturing above the Mason-Dixon Line.

One winter I went "up North" plumb to PEA-ORY, L-IN-NOISE for a funeral and I noticed that everybody there left at least once during the service. Couldn't figure it out--later found out everybody was starting their cars. After service, I sat down in my car on those clear plastic seat covers (remember those?) and it was like sittin' on a block of ice--it was 5 below in that Gosh-forsaken land. Just about had a rigor and couldn't wait to get back home to my sweatbox so I could go swimmin' in the humidity..

[dmj4]

Seats

Oh, those seats. My parents would keep our cars forever. The car would be rusted and completely worn out, but thanks to those clear plastic seat covers the seats could have been recycled into a brand new vehicle and nobody would have been the wiser. I can remember trying to go to sleep in the car with those seat covers on; my face would stick to the seat. However, pushing those little puffed up diamonds(?) down was relaxing. It was a quieter version of stepping on the bubble wrap.

[Bees Knees]

Car starting

I wonder if you guys down in the heat know what car starters are? They work just like the key remotes that lock or unlock your car from a distance. They allow you to start your car while you are still inside the house.

Try walking through the parking lot just as a congregation service meeting is about to end. All of a sudden, a dozen or so cars just start all by themselves while everyone is still inside.

[Unregistered]

Starter

A ree-mote, eh? Never heared uh such! Does this mean that you Yanks don't use the crank in the slot under the radiator?

Cain't see why anybody would want one. No point in runnin' a motor when it's a balmy 99 outside. Besides, a complicated key that a person would need for sump'n like that is liable to get fouled up real easy by ear wax. And you shore don't want to buy a key nowadays. I know a woman who has a Linkun--she had to buy a key and paid $75 fer it. Shoot, I sold a car ('51 Plymouth) for that once. -------- Black Bart

[Snaggletooth]

North Dakota..

...and Minot in particular, migrant home for many an Air Force personnel.

Temperature, 40 below. Wind chill, 80 below. People on the streets of Minot obviously dressed to the max in full winter garb, with a long windsock over their face. If they want to talk to a passerby, the ritual is really strange.

Stop and hold your windsock and merge it with the windsock of the other conversationalist, who is doing the same thing, and talk through the windsock. The only way to prevent frostbite.

Aliens who once visited Minot thought humans were mating, and flew their crafts home.

Yes, Bart, we are indeed every bit as misplaced in their culture as they are in ours.

[Lance Emerson]

It's all in what you make of it. Up here in the land of 10,000 frozen lakes, you look at the weather not as an annoyance, but as an opportunity.

How many of you Southers have experienced the hero-worship look from your kids when you take them outside on a -5 or -10 day, along with a pitcher full of boiling water, say "Watch this," then fling the water into the air. The boiling water vaporizes and freezes immediately, and it looks like you just tossed two cups of flour into the air. It's always a good thing when you can amaze your kids and make them think you're a magician.

When my mom used to visit from South Carolina and we'd go next door to grandma's, mom would put on her sweater, pull on her fuzzy boots, button up her coat, put on her scarf, pull on her hat and mittens, then be ready to scamper the twenty steps to relative safety in the house across the driveway. We'd just laugh and taunt her. You can't go barefoot in weather like that, your feet might stick, but other than that a t-shirt and shorts is all the protection you'd need for such a short journey. It's all in how you look at it.

After one of those stretches where it doesn't get above zero for days on end, when the weather finally breaks and it gets up to 15 or 20 degrees above zero, you Southerners would think it was spring up here. Maybe a sweater, spring jacket for the elderly, but forget about seeing any gloves or mittens or stocking caps. Those are the balmy days when you don't even need to fish from inside the fish house, you just drill a hole in the ice and bask in the warm sun.

And don't forget the sights and sounds and smells of apple pie baking and oak burning in the fireplace while you're sitting around singing holiday songs in front of the fire. Makes for good memories. It ain't so bad.

[Bees Knees]

I grew up on snowmobiles. We had one for each member of the family. Every weekend, a group of families would go out in packs and do trail riding in the woods and lakes around where we lived. We would drive out to the Islands on Pelican Lake north of Buffalo MN and build a camp fire for a wiener roast. It didn’t matter if it was 20 below and snowing. Those were the good old days. We looked forward to snow. The more the better.

[Snaggletooth]

Regional Preference

If that kind of weather appeals to you, you're probably quite happy where you're at
and don't need to contemplate anywhere else. Sometimes I get wanderlust and think of what it would be like to talk through a windsock, or view the Northern Lights, or have sunset at 12 midnight in the summer, but I guess I'll just stay in Tennessee...

...the state that adorns its exalted head in the Great Smoky Mountains and washes its noble feet on the banks of Ol'd Man River...


By the way, a note to all Yankees:

"We ain't as dumb as you think we is."

[Lion]

Cold

My kids never believed my stories of walking to school in the snows and winds of Chicago and were sure I was exaggerating or even lying. One year we went to visit my sister and took the kids to the Museum of Science and Industry between Christmas and New Year's, with the out-of-school crowds had to park over in Soldiers' Field on Lake Michigan. It was the first and probably only time my son ever zipped his coat! Now they don't complain about CT weather.

[dmj4]

Snag is telling it true!

Snag, you are right about people thinkin we're dumb. Some don't get the fact that some of us can drop the southern accent if we want to, but somehow it feels like you are slappin your granmammy, when you do. We went to California recently, my husband grew up there. All of my brother-in-law's friends drove us crazy with the accent thing. Some of them were teasing and some were taking the opportunity to be rude. My kids commented on how tired they were getting of the kids making fun of their speach. My kids are half Californian and really don't sound like they have an accent to me.

No matter where yall are from, I appreciate the tax advise, even when there is a little vinegar and herbs to swallow. HA! HA!

[Lance Emerson]

C'mon, you good ol' boys. Let's not go too far down the road of blaring the trumpet of victimhood.

Anybody see the movie "Fargo?"

Yah, youbetcha, by golly, doncha know, yah, yah, oh yah. Pretty regular lookin'.

It was quite hilarious when that movie came out. All the angry, offended letters to the editor decrying the offensive representation of Minnesotans in that movie. How disrepectful!

The problem is that's exactly how they talk up here. You knew how close the movie hit to reality by the level of angst.

Went to an event in Springfield, MO, last summer with girls sports team. They ran into a girls sports team from Arkansas. The Arkansans asked where they were from and they said "We're from Minnesoooooooda." The Arks laughed. Then the Minnesoooooodans tried to say it without overextending the ooooooooos. Couldn't do it. All evening the Arks and the Ooooodens sat there making fun of the way the other ones talked, and became great friends. Many are still corresponding.

Youbetcha.

[Donanita]

Ok Ok

Now I'm jealous.I would die for cool weather right about now. In Louisiana the high was 95 yesterday.That was cool after a 98 Monday.Cold front was comming today.Temp now is 82.We had 7 days of 100 plus in Sept.

[jainen]

I'm planting roses

Lots of people make snide jokes about my home town, Santa Cruz, CA. Laugh all you want. It's mid-70's under cloudless skies the whole week long here. I'm planting roses.

[Gary]

I lived most of my life in Ohio and the Chicago area (except for 2 years in Alabama). The last seven years in Phoenix have been wonderful. No more, snow, ice, snow, cold, grass to cut. I don't mind the 120 degree days. That's what swimming pools are for.

Gary

[Bees Knees]

Went fishing in Saskatchewan a few years back. One of those fishing guided tours. Our guide was asking about the weather “down” in Minnesota. We said it gets to 20 below for a few weeks out of every winter. He says: “20 below?? We don’t even put on a coat ‘til it gets to 50 below.”

Its all relative.