Freezing Friday and other randomness

It’s chilly over here on the West Coast (a mere 27 degrees when I pulled into work this morning). This is nothing, really. Twenty-seven is downright warm for some of my readers. Still, 27 degrees isn’t the moderate winter temperature of the mid-forties/mid-fifties fare I’m used to feeling.

Although colder temps unusually don’t seem to affect North-Westerners the same way others are affected by the chill. For example, most people would have the sense to bundle up in a warm coat (a down or frost-free parka perhaps), put on gloves, and wrap a scarf around the gullet in chilly weather. I do have a scarf on (for decorative purposes only – a fuzzy black scarf that I could stretch out and wear as a hat or a tube top should I get the notion to do that). The rest of my attire? Jeans, a long sleeved deep pink shirt, and an apple green corduroy blazer. Come to think of it, I do feel kind of chilly. But not chilly enough to make me break out the frost free jacket (which is mostly reserved for skiing, snow, and enduring any other frozen precip.). Oh, I own a warm coat, but I usually don’t get it on before I leave the house.

I’m such a hypocrite too because I make my kids wear that kind of stuff; they walk to school, I reason. Although it’s almost torture getting the bulky stuff on them every morning. Not wanting to bundle up could be a kid thing. Maybe it’s genetic. One thing is for sure – there is a lot of this non-bundling up going on out here. Heck, I frequently see people walking around in shorts or Capri pants no matter what the temperature is (regardless if snow is falling). Socks are optional. Flops, even in winter, are the favored footwear. Which is crazy because it’s not like it’s warm around here ever (July, August, and September are the exceptions).

But we are a rebellious people who don’t care what people think about our fashion sense. Once my family went for a visit to the Bay area to stay with Selene and Gracie for a few days. While there, we spent one of our afternoons at the beach over near the Golden Gate and Alcatraz. It was 58 degrees that day, and our children were running around in their bikinis and playing in the sand and water. I noticed as Selene and I were watching our kids run around and have fun that the passer-byers were practically shivering. All were bundled in polar fleece type garments, scarves, hats, etc. A few were wearing ear muffs. Those passer-by-ers looked at us with puzzled looks too - as if we were crazy for letting our kids run around with only swimsuits for clothes.

Hey people, it’s chilly here most of the year; we get used to it. We even cope. It rains most of the time here too, and I don’t use an umbrella very often either. Umbrella usage is reserved for extended outdoor activities in highly stormy conditions. Otherwise, we all just walk around with or hoods up - or we are simply content to have wet locks.

Other random thoughts:

Don’t you hate being the next person who has to use the one toilet bathroom after someone deposits a stinky odor in that tiny space? Selene – you know what I’m talking about. Anyway, the staff bathroom here is a one-toilet locked door model (almost the indoor equivalent of a port-o-potty), and every time I have to use it, I am forced to plug my nose. The worse part is that when I walk out of the bathroom and someone is waiting to use it, I feel compelled to say, “It stunk before I went in there.” But I never do. And it’s funny that I would even feel that compulsion. Is there anyone out there who doesn’t have stinky crap? Sure, I’d like to think it comes out smelling special, but it always stinks. Always. Don’t think you’re improving the bathroom-air-environment any by being a vegetarian either. Cows are vegetarians, and their gas is depleting the ozone layer.