The week before Christmas was beautiful here. Upper 60s, lower 70s. And, because of the humidity, the temperature doesn’t vary much depending on the time of day. At 7:30AM it’s 64 degrees. Then we traveled to ice and snow for a week and a half. How I loathe the cold. Why choose to live in that for months out of the year? What an inconvenience. After the vacation, we came back to our beautiful weather. Just T-shirts on New Years Eve. Granted, the weather the week before/after our vacation was a bit abnormal, even for here. Also abnormal is the arctic blast we’ve been experiencing since last week. Yes, Northeastern and Midwestern US, the South feels your pain [relatively, anyway]. All the radio stations broadcast the “freeze warning” along with new terms like "wind chill" continuously. That’s right. The temperature has been dropping BELOW 32 DEGREES. That’s not very many. What happens if the degrees run out and actually hit rock bottom 0? Can life even survive? Many Atlantan's would probably answer, no, it would be the end of all life, but Obama will save us.
Whether life can survive is unclear, but I’ll tell you what can’t continue in these harsh conditions: church. Yep. Too cold. There could be frost on the road (not that there has been any ice yet). It’s just too big of a risk. You probably have never experienced the joy of getting a phone call on Saturday evening saying there will be no church tomorrow. If you have had such an expeirence, was the cause of the cancelation a complete surprise? "This is great news!" you think to yourself. Then, "I wonder why church is cancelled." So you ask, and learn "Because it’s cold." Oh! Yes. It IS cold. Then tomorrow dawns, beautiful and sunny (and, yes, cold). What a wonderful place this is! Cold weather almost never comes here, and if it does, we cancel our regularly scheduled programs. A silver lining to this cloud-free sky (no clouds makes it even colder, right?). Really, who should go out in this weather? It’s nice hearing the “freeze warning” on your way home from work and seeing the sign outside of your apartment building saying “FREEZING. Leave heat on. Let facets drip.” Maybe I should have sent this advice to my sister in Cleveland. Maybe then her pipes wouldn’t have burst. They’ve got it figured out down here. Freezing cold should be an emergency.
It’s amazing to me that people ever settled in cold climes. It’s sad to me that they did, because now I have to go to and even live in those places. Days like the last few days remind us of those unfortunate cold habitat dwellers. We southerners (and northwesterners) understand what it's like, and we pity you.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
You have no idea who you're dealing with.
Last year’s square dance class ended in April. We graduated—with honors. The class members were all middle-aged except for us, and the elderly club members doted mercilessly over B and me. We were so young and cute and smart…and such good dancers! Despite already knowing how to dance, these sweet club members make up two-thirds of the class attendees—they dance with us, which is very kind of them and helps us to learn more quickly. In addition to attending the weekly class, the club members attend the weekly club dance (which we stayed away from, either because we weren't good enough or because we had had our weekly fill from the class). After the class ended, our only square dance outlet would have been the dances throughout the summer, but B was out of town. Upon his return in the fall, we stayed away from the dances because we had forgotten everything. We also stayed away from attending the class (as full-fledged club member helpers), figuring that we would attend again beginning in January. See, the moves taught during the fall, though we have forgotten many of them, are not difficult and would require only a simple reminder for us to get back. From January to April, however, the class really picks up the pace and starts doing really complicated stuff—stuff you don’t get to do for very long before the class ends and you stop dancing all together.
Last night was our welcomed return. So many of our old friends! And were they thrilled to see us! They wanted to know EVERYTHING (and we did have lots to report on) and were equally anxious to share their news with us (“Judy couldn’t make it tonight; she’s having a colonoscopy tomorrow morning” “Our third son, Davey, hasn’t seen his daughter since she was 4 years old when he divorced her mother... Well, she’s 20 now and contacted him to say she wanted to get to know him… They talked every night and she moved here a couple months ago and just had a baby!” etc.). We expected to be just a beat behind all night as we re-encountered each of the calls, but the joke was on us when they told us it was the first class. Huh? Apparently, they hadn’t started a new class in September as usual; instead, they waited until the new year, and here we were, showing up like good club members, to welcome and help the new students. We are a little disappointed by this change in timing because we are not too keen on attending the very beginning classes again (Listen to these instructions, given before the music starts: “Face your partner, step up next to your partner, right shoulder to right shoulder, pass each other back to back, then back up and look your partner in the eye (some have two!). This is called a do-si-do.”). Plus, we really want to do the classes from the middle to the end, and now we won’t even be in Atlanta for those ones. We need those ones!
B and I discussed this dilemma during one of the breaks when we in between chats with our old friends. We also discussed the threat to our position as class darlings posed by three of the new class members. B pointed out their strengths as follows:
1. They are new; we are “last year.”
2. They are young; [see 1].
3. There are three of them; we are only two.
4. They are little and cute; [see 1].
5. They are FOREIGN; we are only western [also, see 1].
Oh yeah? Well, I’m not losing our spot without a fight. They’re new, cute, and foreign? Is that all they got? I’m pregnant—take that! Ha! The class darlings for a second year! Picture our imagined melodramatic competition playing out in a silly movie where the club members run to us (because of how happy they are to see us), then over to them for the reasons mentioned above, then back to us. Winners. How will the challengers top this?
Last night was our welcomed return. So many of our old friends! And were they thrilled to see us! They wanted to know EVERYTHING (and we did have lots to report on) and were equally anxious to share their news with us (“Judy couldn’t make it tonight; she’s having a colonoscopy tomorrow morning” “Our third son, Davey, hasn’t seen his daughter since she was 4 years old when he divorced her mother... Well, she’s 20 now and contacted him to say she wanted to get to know him… They talked every night and she moved here a couple months ago and just had a baby!” etc.). We expected to be just a beat behind all night as we re-encountered each of the calls, but the joke was on us when they told us it was the first class. Huh? Apparently, they hadn’t started a new class in September as usual; instead, they waited until the new year, and here we were, showing up like good club members, to welcome and help the new students. We are a little disappointed by this change in timing because we are not too keen on attending the very beginning classes again (Listen to these instructions, given before the music starts: “Face your partner, step up next to your partner, right shoulder to right shoulder, pass each other back to back, then back up and look your partner in the eye (some have two!). This is called a do-si-do.”). Plus, we really want to do the classes from the middle to the end, and now we won’t even be in Atlanta for those ones. We need those ones!
B and I discussed this dilemma during one of the breaks when we in between chats with our old friends. We also discussed the threat to our position as class darlings posed by three of the new class members. B pointed out their strengths as follows:
1. They are new; we are “last year.”
2. They are young; [see 1].
3. There are three of them; we are only two.
4. They are little and cute; [see 1].
5. They are FOREIGN; we are only western [also, see 1].
Oh yeah? Well, I’m not losing our spot without a fight. They’re new, cute, and foreign? Is that all they got? I’m pregnant—take that! Ha! The class darlings for a second year! Picture our imagined melodramatic competition playing out in a silly movie where the club members run to us (because of how happy they are to see us), then over to them for the reasons mentioned above, then back to us. Winners. How will the challengers top this?
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