Variation in local climate
May. 26th, 2016 08:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mtbcOur gym's indoor swimming pool was again busy early this morning and mst3kmoxie suggested that this coincides with seasonal improvement in weather. I was surprised as I hadn't noticed significant change in the weather in my time here and I realized that just because I find the local climate always temperate doesn't mean that locals think likewise.
Wikipedia tells me that Columbus, OH, where I worked for many years, has a recorded temperature range from -30°C to over 40°C and
I enjoy the more interesting weather: I miss everything from the freezing rain to the lightning storms. In Boston my children were able to excavate a horizontal tunnel through the snow in our front yard. The weather's certainly one of the reasons I want to return to the US. Though, a colleague just went from here to Georgia and their child has already required medical treatment for heatstroke: I certainly don't plan to live quite that far southeast. In the meantime, my winter gloves and summer shorts have remained largely unused since we moved to Perthshire and I also no longer carry much in the way of emergency kit in my car'strunkboot.
mst3kmoxie suggested that this coincides with seasonal improvement in weather. I was surprised as I hadn't noticed significant change in the weather in my time here and I realized that just because I find the local climate always temperate doesn't mean that locals think likewise.Wikipedia tells me that Columbus, OH, where I worked for many years, has a recorded temperature range from -30°C to over 40°C and
is subject to severe weather. Whereas, around here, from Perth to Dundee, it never gets anywhere near -20°C and rarely over 30°C (Dundee itself never has). The milder temperatures and lack of severe weather mean that it never seems very forbidding to me, but perhaps it might to others?
I enjoy the more interesting weather: I miss everything from the freezing rain to the lightning storms. In Boston my children were able to excavate a horizontal tunnel through the snow in our front yard. The weather's certainly one of the reasons I want to return to the US. Though, a colleague just went from here to Georgia and their child has already required medical treatment for heatstroke: I certainly don't plan to live quite that far southeast. In the meantime, my winter gloves and summer shorts have remained largely unused since we moved to Perthshire and I also no longer carry much in the way of emergency kit in my car's
no subject
Date: 2016-06-03 08:28 pm (UTC)On the one hand, perhaps because of past depression and perhaps a touch of Total Perspective Vortex, I fear death far less than I did. On the other, in some ways I am indeed naturally cautious (e.g., acting to reduce more conventional health risks) and, now I have children, doubly so because I have to try to stay usefully alive for them: I now actually go to the tornado shelter instead of hoping for an exciting spectacle.
Some people are more genetically wired to be novelty-seeking: perhaps that's part of it. After all, having grown up in England, I did move to Ohio immediately upon graduation. I would have been making more changes in my life if I didn't have to ongoingly earn enough to support my family.
There are still some concerns that bother me. For instance, I didn't like moving to Boston from the point of view of it being a plausible target for terrorist attack; I am similarly not about to move to near the San Andreas Fault. Risks that I can minimize without much compromising my appetite for that make me feel more alive and engaged do get consequential note: for example, in taking a flight from Edinburgh tomorrow morning, I do have my home address and telephone number affixed to my bag via a hardy luggage tag, and the work laptop in carry-on I backed up this morning to storage that is itself backed up.