Heat!

[intertext]

Victoria finally catches up with the rest of the world. It seemed like almost everyone on my Flist, except the Aussies and lilyfriend, benjieblue and globalfruitbat (for obvious reasons) have been complaining about the heat. We out here in the Isles of the Blessed have been basking in temperate climes. Until now, that is. Now it's too damned hot. Oh well, I'm sure we get scant sympathy from the rest of you.

Meanwhile, my home renovations continue apace. At a pace somewhat slower than before (because of the heat) but I'm definitely getting there. The living room and dining room are pretty much done; I just have the pleasurable task now of shuffling books around to their various places. I've decided the bulk of my mother's and my children's book collection will go in the study along with true reference books (books about books, literature, writing, theory etc, and computer books). Literature, novels, poetry, general non-fiction and coffee-table books will go in the living room. Cookbooks (of which I have quite a large number), gardening books (ditto), photography and maybe dog books to go in dining room, along with one shelf full of the fine collectable books because the only bookshelf with doors is in there (it's bolted to the wall - it's an Ikea shelf which I had a hell of a job building because of the doors and don't fancy dismantling and rebuilding anywhere else). Comfort reading (Mercedes Lackey, Georgette Heyer, Rosamund Pilcher et al) and other real old favourites will go on two shelves in my bedroom. Phew. Did I say I have a lot of books?

Comments

[lilyfriend.livejournal.com]

Ah well, with the exception of one or two days, until today, it wasn't *that* bad, was it? :)

I was doing my share of complaining on another friend's journal, in response to her post.

Our professor started our lecture today pointing out that it was 50 in Baghdad and 45 in Las Vegas. The difference is, people in Baghdad or Las Vegas know that's par for the course by now. I agree, we *are* blessed in our happy little moderate climate. When we get heatwaves, it knocks our socks off. And coats.. pants.. and anything else to help cool down!!

It's similar to when I used to live up north. We'd have -45C weather with the windchill. And then we moved down to Victoria, and people would complain that it was cold if it got down under 5C. We'd laugh. It was cute. They thought it was cold. But now, we've acclimatized and it's cold to us too. Okay, not freezing, but still colder than we're used to.

When you're used to a particular climate, any big change is worth a little sympathy! Or so I think. :) Now to crawl under a rock and hibernate til the Fall...

[intertext.livejournal.com]

Yeah, when I was in grad school at U of T I used to swear at the cold in winter. My roommate had spent several years in Iqaluit and thought I was a terrible whiner :) She had a beautiful Inuit parka made of felt with fur on the inside of the hood and thought nothing of -30C temperatures, while I moaned and groaned, but of course was terribly ill prepared, coming from out here. I didn't even have a decent pair of gloves! Then, naturally, after several years there, and some years in China, where the winters were even worse, I came back here and thought everyone was making a terrible fuss about nothing.

Oh well - drink lots of water, stay out of the noonday sun :) We'll probably get acclimatized in a day or two. Let's hope!