(no subject)

[katallison]

Ten below zero (F) this morning, -35 wind chill. In other words, an entirely normal and unremarkable morning for late January. Minnesotans (myself included) have gotten a wee bit spoiled by the unnatural mildness of recent winters, and have lost a grip on the essential ordinariness of mornings like this.

Favorite student sighting of the day: a tall long-haired stoner-looking kid, hatless, scarfless, wearing only a long black oilcloth trenchcoat, unbuttoned and unzipped and flapping open in the (-35 windchill) breeze, to reveal his Metallica t-shirt. He looked oddly cheerful. There are also (as always, in even the worst weather) a number of people riding their bicycles to campus, and god bless 'em.

The cold snap came on abruptly enough that the Mississippi isn't iced over (as it will be tomorrow at this time). But because the water is roughly 40 degrees warmer than the air, the river's surface is covered in a fog of water vapor -- myriad tendrilling strands of condensation that look almost like a ghostly field of grass, billowing and wavering in the icy wind that blows down the river gorge.

In other news, I am about 95% recovered from the Hell-Crud, with only the occasional bone-cracking fit of coughing. I am trying to hack away at mountains of backlogged work and e-mail; this weekend I may get caught up on LJ-reading and perhaps even (::gasp::) do some writing. Stranger things have happened.

Oh, and this is Day Eleven without a cigarette. Cravings almost gone, and once I get the Hell-Crud out of my system I imagine I'll feel *fabulous.* I look forward to being able to breathe deeply without going into lung-hacking-up paroxysms, anyway.

Comments

[planetalyx.livejournal.com]

Day 11! Go you!

In my capacity as The Devil, I tell the crud to withdraw posthaste.

[evilprettykitty.livejournal.com]

Yes! I was driving into Northeast this morning and all the cars had slowed on the bridge to marvel at the wacky steamy Mississippi.

[imkalena.livejournal.com]

There was no such excuse for the puzzling backup on 36 going west this morning . . . goodness knows there's nothing to see!

But besides that, yay you!

[shayheyred.livejournal.com]

THAT is a funny icon.

[imkalena.livejournal.com]

Thanks, babe! It's the work of the infamous heuradys. :)

[shayheyred.livejournal.com]

Brava to you on Day 11. Here's to Day 12.

[ratcreature]

Some people have the oddest body heat regulation or something. While it doesn't get as cold here as in Minnesota (and I'm feeling particularly thankful to the Gulf Stream for that each winter, the dark is bad enough without it being cold), it still gets cold enough, yet I've seen people wearing t-shirts with thin jackets and no socks with their shoes, while I was wearing several layers, some of them long underwear, fleece vests, two pairs of socks and winter boots and the like. And the particular person I have in mind wasn't a stoner kid either, but a fifty-something guy. Now granted I'm not well adjusted to really cold temperatures (nor to very hot, I blame generations of my family living in this temperate, coastal climate with usually cool summers and mild winters), but no socks? When it was snowing? I don't get it, but he said he wasn't cold, when everybody looked at him like he forgot to dress.

And congrats to your eleventh cigarette-free day.

[theodosia.livejournal.com]

I believe that exhalation from open water is called 'sea smoke' and it is one of the loveliest things you'll see on a very cold morning. We rarely get that cold here in Boston (although we just did!) and it is one of the few good things about it. :-)

[byob-kenobi.livejournal.com]

Well, that's all very well and good for you Midwesterners, but us folk over in Boston aren't used to three weeks with -30 windchill. *g*

Want your weather back? I think we're done with it.

[umbo.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you're feeling better, at least 95% so, and super proud of you for the 11 days--here's hoping that each day will get easier :-)

[twistedchick]

Hey Kat, this is wonderful. Congrats on Day 11. I'm looking forward to being able to talk to you *and* breathe at ConneXions (says she with asthma and ciggie allergies.)

And I wish you well with the cold; I lived in that kind of weather (above the Adirondacks on the lake plain, when I went to Potsdam State College) for two years and my bones haven't forgotten it. It was -20 to -40 for two months at a time. I think the only time I was out of long underwear was either when I was having sex or in the shower.

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

Good to see you checking in. Man, I don't know how you midwesterners do it -- that weather sounds absolutely insupportable to me. Yikes.

Glad you're mostly over the crud. Congratulations on Day Eleven!

[alexfandra.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've got a Macho High School Boy at my bus stop every morning in nothing but sandals, jeans and short-sleeve t-shirt...granted, the coldest it's been so far in Seattle this winter was around 20 degrees *above* zero, but still. The snark in me wants to yank off his Walkman and shout, "I will NOT be impressed with your display until you show up on a 90+ mid-July day wearing a wool coat, hat, gloves, and a muffler!"

Congrats on the non-smoking campaign!

[ardent-muses.livejournal.com]

I know it must be hard to change that habit, and I admire you like hell! Go you!

[namastenancy.livejournal.com]

Crud Be Gone! I am ordering it so!!! Orders from SF have a special power this being the evil capital of the world and all that shit (according to some right wing idiots).

Congratulations on day 11. Stay away from Evil Cigarettes! Have healthy lungs and live longer.

namaste SF Nancy

[oracne.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on Day 11!!!