Wednesday, 23 February 2005
Snow!
the view from my bathroom window
This morning, cold as ever, I woke up to the sight of snow! Big whoop, you might say - especially if you hail from Minnesota, where I spent many a year before moving to Paris.
But the fluffy (or sticky) white stuff is a rare sight here. Rare enough to confound and confuse, annoy and amuse, the few times that it does come around. My inner Minnesotan found it pretty funny to see everyone slipping and sliding, in cars or on foot.
You betcha. Oui.
Did I mention it's been cold? It has been. Not noteworthy - it's "only" been hovering around freezing - except for two facts: One, the sum total of all heat in my apartment comes from two lousy little electric heaters (expensive). Right next to the windows (dumb). Which aren't insulated or double-paned (cheap). Brr. I've been taking a lot of hot showers.
out my office window, a row of cycles and scooters
Fact two, I've become a major wuss in the cold-bearing department since I moved here. I'm convinced it has much to do with how damp the chill air is. ("Cuts right to the bone," I often hear my Minnesotan-esque mouth utter.) But on days like today - the rare, truly cold ones - the cold is a dry cold, and my excuse evaporates. I realize that only having recourse to a little thing called "heat" makes cold, of any kind, bearable.
Heat which, thankfully, my radiator-festooned office has in abundance. And so I look down, admiring the snow, and the passerby struggling in it (and the slush), from within a nice, hot room - once again confident thanks to my newly regained sense of Minnesotan superiority.
Alors, y'fait plutôt froid hein ? "So, cold 'nuf for ya?"
Comments
I'm sorry you're cold! We've just started to move again, after being frozen to the ground last week, with -32 degrees Celsius in Stockholm...