Confessions of a Transplanted Yankee

[digitaldiscipline]

Sure, it's December 23rd, and I came to the office wearing shorts, a t-shirt, and sandals; I'd be an ingrate to complain about the weather overmuch, considering. But it sure the fuck doesn't -feel- like the next-to-last shopping day before Happy Birfday Jebus-mas.

You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake. Around here, there are no snowflakes, beautiful, unique, or otherwise.

K asked me yesterday why there are so many people who do the over-the-top Griswald thing with their holiday decorations (there's an example of the platonic ideal of holiday decorative overkill on Central, just north of Sligh); I think it's to (over?)compensate for the fact that if there's a white christmas down this way, there's some meteorological wackiness afoot.

Not really feeling much "spirit of the season" in these quarters this time around. Money's tight, there's creeping crud nibbling at the edge of our generally decent health, and we've had to push back seeing our new neices and the rest of our family a month as a result, so we're a little bit adrift and on our own.

That doesn't mean I don't have a lot of good stuff to appreciate. I have my own house to go home to. I've got great friends, without whom I wouldn't be who and where I am today.

Sandals for Santa. It's weird, it's not what I'm used to, but I think it'll play.

Comments

[angel-renewed.livejournal.com]

I was just thinking last night (at 2am as I vainly tried to sleep) that I really haven't been as bitchy about XMas as usual. Minor grumblings,to be sure, but there's yet to be a full on SilRant(tm) about how much I hate the holiday and what it makes people do. So, yeah, less Christmas spirit. No snow. No snowmen. No falling on my ass trying to do the drunken stumble on ice. I haven't even been to a mall in months.

It's all good.

As long as I get Chinese and a movie (The Aquatic Life with Steve Zissou) on Baby Jeebus' birthday, I'll be fine. At least this time, we won't have to drive through 2ft snow banks to get to the theater.

[elixxir.livejournal.com]

Well for the record this week it's been down to minus 35 with the wind chill here. Warming up just enough to dump 30 cm of snow overnight and today with some freezing rain thrown in for shits and giggles. Feel better?? :p

[etcet.livejournal.com]

Well, yes. I'm all for 30cm of the white fluffy stuff and -5 (Celsius, you freaks) for the holiday, because that's just how it's supposed to be.

Sub-zero (F) is just too fucking cold, even for my Buffalonian upbringing.

Could you do me a favor and email me your postal addy? There's something at my house that needs to be at yours, you see. :-)

[etcet.livejournal.com]

There's no reason to be bitchy about it down here. Sure, the muzak is present, but with nine jillion channels and Tivo, you're able to miss the cloying programming on both the radio and tv, and aren't subjected to a lot of men in fuzzy red suits.

Did chinese last night; not bad (though truncated blood sugar crash from working out after not eating enough all day).

Our lights are up, and we have the Hideously Glorious Holiday Shrub (courtesy of netgoth, though, inexplicably, half the string of lights I put on it stopped working after 3 days.

The whole season just feels. . . muted.

[mpeace.livejournal.com]

Very soon, we shall be joining you in southern warmth. It's 11 degrees F, -5 degrees F with wind chill and expected to drop. Ya, not as bad as elixxir but we're not quite as far north.

A friend's coworker called in "cold" today. Apparently she had an vacation day to use so she is with the notation, "It's just too cold to get out of bed today."

[voratus.livejournal.com]

Last I heard they were saying it was going to be 7 here on Christmas.
And I think that was before the wind chill.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

Yeah. . . I saw that, too.
I am snickering. A lot.

!!

[etcet.livejournal.com]

Seven degrees. Farenheit. In New Orleans.

Dag, yo.

Let your faucets drip, and drink heavily.
[So, really, the faucet thing is the only real change from SOP.]

I will resume pointing and laughing, though I will idly wonder where my fleece pullover might have gotten to, just in case. ;-)

Re: !!

[etcet.livejournal.com]

Hmm. . this (http://www.weather.com/weather/local/70131?lswe=70131&lwsa=WeatherLocalUndeclared) makes it look a whole lot more like 7 Celsius, ya pansy. *g*

[trystbat.livejournal.com]

The only time I've actually had a white xmas was last year when T's family rented 3 cabins at Lake Tahoe for all of us. T&I had already booked our vacation time for the Antarctica-Rio trip, so we had only xmas eve & day off. We drove from the Bay Area to Tahoe the day before xmas & got caught in a nasty-ass blizzard. A normally 5-hour drive was doubled. Worst.xmas.eve.ever! Screw that white xmas crap. I'm a California girl. I'm wearing short sleeves on Saturday while I open prezzies ;-)

re: the light displays

[hel_ana]

I was reading the paper this morning, and apparently there's been a rash of baby Jesus thefts from lawn displays.

One couple who had thier Jesus stolen had a bit of forwarning -- two days before, someone left a spraypainted sign on their display asking "Would Jesus use this much electricity?"

[inlaterdays.livejournal.com]

~~* ~~* ~~* ~~* ~~* ~~* ~~*

some snowflakes for you. :)

[etcet.livejournal.com]

Or caterpillars with afros. ;-)

Re: the light displays

[etcet.livejournal.com]

Bwahahahahahaha!

I think I'm going to edit one of my favorite crude t-shirts for tomorrow night.

"Have you nailed your Messiah('s mother) today?"

[inlaterdays.livejournal.com]

but they're caterpillars with afros pretending to be snowflakes! you don't wanna hurt their ASCII feelings, do you?

...silly question. never mind. ;)

Re: the light displays

[hel_ana]

::blinks::

Wow. that *is* offensive.

Re: !!

[voratus.livejournal.com]

Actually, I got some confused information. Well, the information was correct, but I was confused. The 7 is for some friends of ours from here whom are going to Alabama for exmass.
Last I actually heard for here it is gonna be 20.

Re: !!

[voratus.livejournal.com]

See a little bit further below:

And as far as the pointing and laughing goes, I'll keep that in mind next hurricane season.

Re: !!

[etcet.livejournal.com]

said fifties on the weather channel, mon. . . where are you getting this info?

i just wanna park my ass on the pc and do the deadmines in westfall on sunday afternoon with my crew, dagnabbit.

Re: !!

[etcet.livejournal.com]

feel free. i did plenty myself, and even got a pretty good story idea out of it. ;-)

at least now i'm above sea level. *grin*

Re: the light displays

[etcet.livejournal.com]

I do crass well. ;-)

One word to make you not miss home

[yokes1971.livejournal.com]

SLEET

[nener.livejournal.com]

K asked me yesterday why there are so many people who do the over-the-top Griswald thing with their holiday decorations

That's because we can wear shorts and sandals and barely break a sweat while putting all that stuff up. It's the best weather for being outside and making the house look festive (or scary in some cases).

Is it just a Florida thing? I have no other data points as I've lived here my whole life, but I have a feeling that it is more common here because the weather is good and it's the only way to make it look like X-mas.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

No, there are plenty of people back home in Buffalo who do it up big-time, too. . . but at least there, it makes sense. Here, it's like trying to will festivity from a dying lawn.

Maybe it's delusion. Maybe it's optimism. Maybe it's irrepressible holiday cheer.

Whatever it is, it's amusing.

Re: One word to make you not miss home

[etcet.livejournal.com]

I knew there was something I didn't miss in the slightest. That's right, it's precipitation of any sort between 34 and 56 degrees that I need to be outside in for any length of time. ;-)

Re: One word to make you not miss home

[yokes1971.livejournal.com]

ooo now its freezing rain!

[geekers.livejournal.com]

I'll trade you. My body can't withstand chill. :-\

[jruske.livejournal.com]

This, sir, is why I find the south very disappointing. Even when they have a white Christmas, it's laden with tones of panic and idiots asphyxiating themselves by using propane heaters indoors.

With global warming I suspect this will only get worse, however the Chinese are polluting the world with airborn mercury, so maybe the mercury poisoning will help us all forget what we are missing....

Grrr...

[elixxir.livejournal.com]

"This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.

Delivery to the following recipients failed.

rafe@digitaldiscipline.com"

Wassup wit dat??

Re: Grrr...

[etcet.livejournal.com]

hmm. spelled properly. your reply-to address isn't obfuscated or otherwise maimed, is it? (hellsop has configured things to spork any bad addresses).

hmmm.

send it to my lj email addy, and we can go from there, i guess. Hmmmm....