Friday, December 01, 2006
I think I understand now why Californians seem a little disconnected and slow. (or maybe, they have just always seemed that way to me....)
In the Midwest, we were always trying to stay one step ahead of the weather. Summer's only 8 or 10 weeks long, really, so you had to hurry up and get your fill of outdoors. Fall's only a few short weeks, and really the leaves peak after 2 weeks... gotta go before it's over. Gotta clean the gutters before snow sets in. Shovel before more snow comes. Switch out the wardrobes before it gets too cold. Or too hot. Or too something.
And getting to work was an adventure in survival... an hour-plus of seeing your breath, fighting wind so hard it knocks out your hearing, and trying to conserve energy.
It just doesn't happen here. It's hard to tell the weeks and the months apart. It's dark by 5, and some mornings start with frost. Other than that... the earth seems the same. There is no great need to savor this beautiful day, because one just like it is coming. It's like living in suspended animation, floating through time. It's enough to make anyone lose track of reality.
0 comments:
Post a Comment