Shiver Me Timbers

One of the things that occurs to me as I talk with my folks on Skype is that they usually ask how the weather has been. For much of the year my response is usually, "Ugh. Hot." And then the rest of the year my response is, "Dang, it's cold." And then my parents rhetorically ask, "What's cold over there, like 80?"

And...yes. 80 is cold. Most mornings that I talk to them these months I find myself in a sweatshirt sipping a cup of tea. And then later topping off the tea just to stave off the cold. It's the time of year where there are actually noticeable temperature swings in between dawn (coldest part of the day) and 2pm (hottest part of the day). As opposed to it just always being hot.

Right now in the middle of the afternoon it's 85F (30C). At dawn, the thermometer claims that it is 70F (21C), but I think it's lying just to make me feel better. Where I come from, in cold rainy Seattle, when it hits 60 this time of year you start skipping school and wearing shorts and tank tops. When I was back in the States last year, I spent my first week in L.A. wearing a sweatshirt because the 85 degree afternoons were just too chilly.

That's not to say when it gets hot I do fine. When the mercury pushes 104 (40C) during the summer I refuse to do any physical activity that is not eating food or drinking water. But here when the thermometer drops below 80 it's chilly and anything below 70 (which is most mornings April thru July) are just plain cold.

It's all in the perspective, I guess.