Hot as it might seem to be, one still needs a wetsuit in the ocean here. Even on the hottest day, a wetsuit will save you from dying if anything will. This a beautiful part of the world, no question, but nature is a killer, no conscience, n mind of concern or care. It's only beautiful t people, not to animals or birds or lizards or trees or rocks. You just ask em and they'll say they don't care bout nothing but eating and so on. Nature is lovely, and nature is for us alone because we have the capacity to grasp it.
Between the two of you I think I'm forced to reread Kant. Well, if it's nice tomorrow I'll find a nice place under a tree and read and have a picnic and a loaf for a day. I can do that because of the machinery of printing and paper making, because of plastic wrappers and refrigeration and all the "unnatural" things that make nature less an enemy for us than it has ever been for our own kind.
Plastic! I love it. Long live plastic. Long live the stretchy, indestructible, versatile plastic world of Man in nature shaped by the hand and mind of Man.
Walker, I admit it's sticky, but I remember too many occasions over the last few weeks when I was shivering, wet, and unable to shake off a lingering cold. I'll gladly take a sticky hot day with a smile as a trade-off for the april, may and june we received this year! (After a couple more weeks of this kind of weather I may be singing a different tune, pining for rain and seeing my breath in the air while walking to work in the morning..)
Findalis, we've been having weather in the low eighties in the last couple of days, I think not much different than you. The humidity might be more fearsome up here, though...! My American wife still hasn't gotten used to it, all these years later.
Walker, I guess I can only encourage you to embrace weather, for what it is, rather than what we want it to be.
I was raised in the Republic of Panama, because my dad was an Army officer stationed there. I arrived there as an infant, not yet 1 year old, and left there when I was 10.
I remember the ship cruising up the Mississippi River the day we arrived. It was, perhaps, 75 degrees Fahrenheit. I ran to find every clothing I could find, to protect against the "cold."
It's a matter of reality, I'm beginning to think.
In my case, it's what I was raised in. An organism used to a certain temperature -- no extremes -- must get used to extremes, does it find itself in such a situation.
Eowin, Since you grew up in Panama, were you in store for another shock besides the change in weather, when you started seeing the animals that we take for granted up here? Like squirrels, chipmunks, raccoons, skunks, foxes, and so on?
You were probably lucky to see these things for the first time as an older child, you get to appreciate them for the interesting creatures they are, because of the novelty factor.
I used to work with a young man from Panama, and one day he came to work all excited about seeing his first skunk in his backyard.
"They look just like they do in the cartoons!", he said, and his enthusiasm was contagious.
I found myself in a village on the coast somewhere in Central America, and there I met this cute Kiwi girl I tried to impress. I took her out for dinner, to the local marketplace, where she told me she's vegetarian and didn't want to eat any lizards. Well, says me, ever charming and suave, "If you don't eat your endangered sea-turtle soup today, tomorrow there might not be any."
Ah well, not all relationships are meant to last.
The sun is beautiful, life is good, people are wonderful, given some chance and a bit of space between them and the drive to grab food from wherever they can when it's possible to get away with it. We have so much to be thankful for. I had a lovely day with my fellow blogger and rabble-rouser, Reliable Sources. Dinner, a warm breeze in the evening, some hot chocolate on the patio, a pleasant evening, and tomorrow more of life again. I love the sunshine. I hope I live for a thousand years. If not, then every day I have will be a thousand delights. I go for them now because truly, tomorrow there might not be any more.
Indeed yes, Charles Henry -- every day a new discovery was made, to the great amusement of my family :o)
By age 10, though, I had learned some restraint. Unlike when I was 3, and brought home a baby sloth. He was adorable -- but my dad blanched at the thought of what bacteria might be in those long claws, and swiftly sent Baby back to his tree.
Finally, summer comes to Vancouver, British Columbia. What a nice Saturday we've had today.
10 comments:
Sure, it's nice.
But it's hot as hell, man.
Like the sticky kind of hot too.
Hot as it might seem to be, one still needs a wetsuit in the ocean here. Even on the hottest day, a wetsuit will save you from dying if anything will. This a beautiful part of the world, no question, but nature is a killer, no conscience, n mind of concern or care. It's only beautiful t people, not to animals or birds or lizards or trees or rocks. You just ask em and they'll say they don't care bout nothing but eating and so on. Nature is lovely, and nature is for us alone because we have the capacity to grasp it.
Between the two of you I think I'm forced to reread Kant. Well, if it's nice tomorrow I'll find a nice place under a tree and read and have a picnic and a loaf for a day. I can do that because of the machinery of printing and paper making, because of plastic wrappers and refrigeration and all the "unnatural" things that make nature less an enemy for us than it has ever been for our own kind.
Plastic! I love it. Long live plastic. Long live the stretchy, indestructible, versatile plastic world of Man in nature shaped by the hand and mind of Man.
Lovely and I bet you cooler than here near Chicago.
Walker, I admit it's sticky, but I remember too many occasions over the last few weeks when I was shivering, wet, and unable to shake off a lingering cold.
I'll gladly take a sticky hot day with a smile as a trade-off for the april, may and june we received this year!
(After a couple more weeks of this kind of weather I may be singing a different tune, pining for rain and seeing my breath in the air while walking to work in the morning..)
Findalis, we've been having weather in the low eighties in the last couple of days, I think not much different than you.
The humidity might be more fearsome up here, though...! My American wife still hasn't gotten used to it, all these years later.
Jeeze, and I thought the Maritimes were beautiful :o)
I do hope to visit BC someday!
(LOL @ dag's eulogy to plastic)
Alas, my relationship with the weather is thus:
If it is cold, I will complain
If it is hot, I will complain.
If it is snowing, I will complain.
If it is raining, I...might complain.
I think I wrote an article on the weather a little while ago, actually. It was talking about how the winter never seemed to end a few months back.
Of course, none of the other seasons really appeal to me either. Except for the Fall.
But the Fall never lasts nearly long enough.
Unfortunately, this complaint actually has gone on for long enough.
And for that I apologise.
I'll blame the heat.
:)
Walker, I guess I can only encourage you to embrace weather, for what it is, rather than what we want it to be.
I was raised in the Republic of Panama, because my dad was an Army officer stationed there. I arrived there as an infant, not yet 1 year old, and left there when I was 10.
I remember the ship cruising up the Mississippi River the day we arrived. It was, perhaps, 75 degrees Fahrenheit. I ran to find every clothing I could find, to protect against the "cold."
It's a matter of reality, I'm beginning to think.
In my case, it's what I was raised in. An organism used to a certain temperature -- no extremes -- must get used to extremes, does it find itself in such a situation.
Having said ALL that ...
Every situation has beauties.
Eowin,
Since you grew up in Panama, were you in store for another shock besides the change in weather, when you started seeing the animals that we take for granted up here? Like squirrels, chipmunks, raccoons, skunks, foxes, and so on?
You were probably lucky to see these things for the first time as an older child, you get to appreciate them for the interesting creatures they are, because of the novelty factor.
I used to work with a young man from Panama, and one day he came to work all excited about seeing his first skunk in his backyard.
"They look just like they do in the cartoons!", he said, and his enthusiasm was contagious.
We take so many things so for granted...
I found myself in a village on the coast somewhere in Central America, and there I met this cute Kiwi girl I tried to impress. I took her out for dinner, to the local marketplace, where she told me she's vegetarian and didn't want to eat any lizards. Well, says me, ever charming and suave, "If you don't eat your endangered sea-turtle soup today, tomorrow there might not be any."
Ah well, not all relationships are meant to last.
The sun is beautiful, life is good, people are wonderful, given some chance and a bit of space between them and the drive to grab food from wherever they can when it's possible to get away with it. We have so much to be thankful for. I had a lovely day with my fellow blogger and rabble-rouser, Reliable Sources. Dinner, a warm breeze in the evening, some hot chocolate on the patio, a pleasant evening, and tomorrow more of life again. I love the sunshine. I hope I live for a thousand years. If not, then every day I have will be a thousand delights. I go for them now because truly, tomorrow there might not be any more.
Indeed yes, Charles Henry -- every day a new discovery was made, to the great amusement of my family :o)
By age 10, though, I had learned some restraint. Unlike when I was 3, and brought home a baby sloth. He was adorable -- but my dad blanched at the thought of what bacteria might be in those long claws, and swiftly sent Baby back to his tree.
Nature is a grand symphony :o)
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