Winter In America Is Cold
It's a fact. Portland has well and truly settled into its typical long, dark winter. Average high temperatures for this week are forecast to be between 38 and 44°F (3 to 7°C) and it'll probably stay like that until some time in February. It actually snowed a bit this morning, a light drifting of flakes slowly falling from the sky - but the flakes never actually reached the ground, so I'm not sure if that really counts.
Actually, the coldness itself doesn't really bother me anymore. After travelling through Europe in winter – where the temperatures were in the range of -15 to -10°C (5 to 14°F) in Prague, Berlin and Copenhagen – nothing has ever really felt truly cold since. What does bug me about the cold is the rigamarole of getting dressed to go anywhere. If Christine calls me from work and wants me to meet her at a pub, I have to throw on about five layers of clothing, a scarf, a hat, gloves and maybe (actually, most of the time!) rain pants and a rain jacket just to set foot outside. This process can take a long time and has to be reversed when I reach the heated pub at the other end, lest I melt. Then when it's time to leave, back on all the clothes have to go! It's all a bit of a drag.
All that said, I do miss my Australian summer, even though it seems to have been atypically wet in Sydney this year...
Posted in: chaosboy, portland, united states on December 9, 2007 at at 12:50:00 PM
Winter in America is cold
And I keep on getting older.
I wish I could have known
Enough of love
To leave love enough alone.
Doug Ashdown, 1974