December 18, 2006

How's the weather?

The question that comes up most frequently about life here is ‘what’s the weather like?’ As one commenter asked in reference to the last entry, ‘is it weird celebrating Christmas where it’s warm?’

To answer the first question, here’s a picture I took last week from the sofa:


(I wrote a long time ago about our sofa-buying adventure, here’s the final product):

Part of why it's so easy to skip Christmas this year is the weather. In a cold, gray climate, I need the lights, the evergreen tree and cozy traditions to cheer me up. Out here, there are trees in bloom and green all around me. Decorating for Christmas seems like unnecessary work.

Basically, at some point during the day the temperature warms up to the 60’s while at night it dips into the 30's or 40's. I get hostile about turning the heat on. One: it will warm up at some point. Two: all the windows are single panes. The insufficient insulation drives me crazy. As a result, most of the time inside our apartment, my hands are numb. For some odd reason, Muttola seems to really like basking in the sun once it peeks over the edge of the balcony. Obviously, there’s no correlation.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Funny, that sunny picture just got me all nostalgic about Christmas in Bangladesh - there's nothing like putting lights around a banana tree! Ugh, I hate the whole thermostat dance we have to do in our drafty old house... I just want it to be warm enough ALL THE TIME! :-P Aw, Muttola looks like he wants out.

Rachel said...

I like your pictures. Nice sofa! I was always *freezing* at night when we lived in San Francisco. No insulation, and it was cold and foggy more or less year-round.

Beloved said...

Your place looks wonderful; good choice on the sofa. I've been driving home from work in the dark lately and really starting to appreciate the holiday lights on houses--starting to feel a little guilty about not "sharing the love" by putting up any decorations of my own. I'm tired and especially lazy this time of year; that's my excuse.

Snickollet said...

Lovely sofa. Your whole place looks great.

I am the same way as you about the heat. I hate to turn it on. I'd much rather put on another sweater. Even now that we have the twins, we still keep our place relatively cold. Our pediatrician said it was fine--just bundle them up!