topaz119 | (no subject)

Y'all, I am a disappointment to my Northern roots, but I can't deal with actual winter weather anymore, and single-digit temperatures (ºF) are entirely too much hassle. I gave BabyBoy the 'no, don't count on them delaying school tomorrow' speech, but I'd be thrilled if they did. I drive him to school every morning, so he's fine, but kids around here, even middle-class kids, just don't have coats and gear to wait out in those kind of temps for a bus.

My super-thrilling life, everyone.

Books? Books.

finished
The Martian, Andy Weir, which I liked, and zoomed through, but I found myself reading like I was reading specs for work, just not really caring about the details and taking it on faith that the science worked. I also found myself half-covering my eyes at some of the interpersonal interactions--seriously, there were a few lines that I would have groaned at if I'd been reading fic, much less white-hot, optioned by Matt Damon best-seller. All that being said, I cannot *wait* to see the movie, because I pretty much love the casting and Kristen Wiig especially should rock the shit out of the NASA press secretary.

The Sweet Spot: How to Find Your Groove at Home and Work, Christine Carter, which I wish had been longer--I think 30% of it was notes & bibliography & it wasn't that long of a book to begin with. I am all for citing sources (and providing sources, not just anecdotal evidence) but maybe a few more case studies would have been nice? (I can't believe I just typed that; normally, I'm all 'too many happy stories, where's my research?') I run about 50/50 with the working mother advice books, but this one did not leave me enraged, and even in its brevity, it gave me points to think through, so we definitely count it as a win.

reading
How To Be a Heroine, Or, What I’ve Learned from Reading too Much, Samantha Ellis -- Oh, I am eating this up with a spoon, right from the first anecdote of how the book came to be as the author has an epiphany on the moors that Cathy Earnshaw was the wrong Bronte heroine to want to emulate (Jane Eyre is the right one, fyi, a sentiment I agree with wholeheartedly. YMMV, of course, but we should talk about it in the comments.)

Daring Greatly, Brene Brown -- Again, this kept popping up in other things I was reading and seeing, so I'm following my subconscious and giving it a try. I have not been tempted to throw it across the room yet (my engineering brain does not take to the woo-woo stuff well), which bodes well for finishing.

next
There are so many in the TBR pile--I may just use a random number generator and pull one out of the virtual stacks.

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It is sooo cold! Brrrr.

oh, you must be dying--my brother said it never got above 0 last weekend, which is just crazy-talk!

I just came back from the East Coast, and I agree -- that weather is miserable! It is such a pain to have to cover up every piece of exposed flesh before you dare go outside, and even then, it's not enough to keep you warm. And yeah, who has the money to outfit a growing kid with high-tech winter gear? Those are investment purchases people make if they like hiking in extreme conditions, not something you can buy in a size up every year.

ugh, it's been awful this year. My cousins keep apologizing for the depressed fb posts, but honestly, I'd be in such a tailspin over having this weather for more than a couple of days I can't even blame them.

I really don't know how kids got to school this morning--a lot of kids at the school where my husband teaches barely have money for food and even among the kids who do, a lot of them are Central African immigrants, where they have no frame of reference for this weather.

We here in the Northern climes have a system in place for that "high tech winter gear". It's called passing them down the line, because kids grow out of them before they wear out. So there's a thriving market on the bulletin board where I work -- and even at the Mountain Equipment Coop store that sells them new. All my daughters' "MEC toasters" have had at least 3 owners; used ones usually go for $40.

Here's kidlet in hers (at age 6, eating snow like any good Canadian kid):

(http://s1294.photobucket.com/user/AlphaFlyer/media/E-Snow-tire1_zps6suyauv6.jpg.html)

Edited 2015-02-19 03:03 (UTC)

My cousins up in the WV mountains keep posting on fb about getting the kids into the snowsuits and out to the bus stops and I am SO GLAD I DON'T LIVE THERE NOW. I did have some awesome hand-me-downs for when we'd go skiing, but I'd just as soon not have to wrestle kids into snow/cold gear every morning.

Your kidlet is adorable; please feel free to embarrass her now that she's a teenager with her little-girl cuteness. :D

You Californians are such wusses ... ;-) It went all the way up to -8 here today, so my husband decided to have a BBQ to celebrate!

And since I'm into posting pictures today, here -- have a picture of one of the side benefits of winter: free wine fridge on my deck!

(http://s1294.photobucket.com/user/AlphaFlyer/media/DSC_0690_zpsvxzkiqpx.jpg.html)

Georgia, Georgia, not California--though yes, wusses. :D

I have to put up with the heat and humidity during the summer, that's supposed to get me out of the single-digit temps. (It was -12 C here this morning. YUCK. DNW.)

Samantha Ellis needed an epiphany to realise that Cathy Earnshaw isn't exactly the best role model in life? I would have thought that would have been obvious pretty early on!

She does write it in a very face-palm way, and her best friend is totally all 'what, are you nuts?' when she says Cathy is her favorite. I'm enjoying the book a lot--revisiting favorite characters and kind of marveling how similar an Iraqi-Jewish girl growing up in London can feel to my own teenage years. (She had an Orthodox boyfriend, I had one who became a monk, etc...)

Y'all, I am a disappointment to my Northern roots, but I can't deal with actual winter weather anymore, and single-digit temperatures (ºF) are entirely too much hassle

you and me both, dude. I tell my kids I used up all my cold weather endurance in my youth.

Here, son #2 has had a grand total of 3 hours of school this week, and everyone on my FB feed is posting this:

ahahahaha, that was totally Atlanta last year. :D

We missed Tuesday for ice, but we went in today despite the bitter cold. I worry about some of the kids at the school where my husband teaches--they don't have money for food, much less cold weather gear that might get used a couple days a year.