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January 16, 2008
it "snowed" tonight!
By the time I got the pictures uploaded, the snow had already turned to rain. Too bad, I was hoping for a snow day tomorrow. But you never know, if this rain gets too cold overnight they could declare it "ice" and shut down the university anyway. At any rate, I was ecstatic to have some snow here in Athens. I even danced in it a little.
Whee!
Posted by jodi at 10:47 PM | Comments (7) | categories: canadians love to talk about the weather
December 16, 2007
we're under fifteen feet of pure white snow
I got just what I wanted for my birthday this year:
Since I got home I've been telling my friends about how I was running errands on Wednesday morning in a thin little dress with bare arms and shoulders in 78 degree sunshine before getting on a plane to chilly Detroit (I'm sure they're all quite sick of hearing it). Last night as we struggled through whipping wind and snow downtown it didn't seem that funny anymore. But snow in Windsor in December isn't usual, and I hardly ever get snow on my birthday, so when I woke up this morning to a vast expanse of white I was thrilled (irritatingly so, some might say). Even after shoveling out the entire front walk and a good portion of the neighbour's as well, I'm still thrilled, although I suspect that may wear off by the time I've finished shovelling my way out to the car. Fortunately we have nowhere to go today, and there's plenty of coffee and leftover party food to sustain us.
Since winter weather's not such a novelty to Peter, he stood back and took pictures while I gleefully shovelled.
More photos here.
Posted by jodi at 10:50 AM | Comments (17) | categories: canadians love to talk about the weather
November 22, 2007
well, hallelujah, i guess.
Governor Sonny Perdue(tm)'s prayers must be answered, although it's a little suspicious that he waited until there was actually rain in the long term forecast before publicly asking god for it. It's been almost two weeks since he prayed, but I guess if god wants to act slowly and make people stew a while waiting for an answer then that's some kind of divine prerogative. Certainly it couldn't just be a coincidence, or a cunningly timed almanac-checking. Nuh-uh.
Here's what my new internet obsession Steve has to say about the governor's prayers for rain.
Peter and I are off to celebrate AmericanThanksgiving(tm) with Hockey Mom and family. I'm praying for wine. Think the gods will come through for me?
Posted by jodi at 10:29 AM | Comments (3) | categories: canadians love to talk about the weather
November 08, 2007
chilly morning
Frost on the grass today.
These past two days have felt a lot more like November should, but I have to say that after more than a month of the typical Georgia autumn, in which the mornings are cold and by lunchtime it's up in the seventies again, to have it suddenly stay cold all day is a bit of a harsh transition to make.
I really have to get some sweaters made, since I prefer not to wear stuff over the dresses that I haven't made myself. Gotta start thinking about a jacket too. Last night I had to go out late and it was 4 Celsius (I know I've said before that 4 degrees is t-shirt weather, but that's only in March after a hard winter; that's how relativity works, kids). So I cheated and wore a sweater coat over my dress, a really sweet oversize curling coat that I got at the buckapound over the summer, with intarsia curling rocks and brooms all over it. I'm looking forward to making that my number one winter coat once this project is over, but for now I've got to either get sewing or be cold.
Posted by jodi at 08:39 PM | Comments (2) | categories: canadians love to talk about the weather : wardrobe project
August 24, 2007
finally.
I was just awakened from a much-needed afternoon nap (didn't get much sleep last night) by rumbling, yet another of those thunderstorms without rain that we've been having so often in these endless weeks of hundred-degree days. After listening for ten minutes or so, the thunder moving ever closer, I decided to exercise some positive visualization and opened up my door and windows, waiting, hoping.
It's raining now, hard and heavy, enough to flood the sidewalks and pool in the uneven areas of red dirt (now red mud) outside my door, and showing no signs of quitting and passing us by any time soon. Just the sound of it makes my heart sing. I'd run out and dance in it, clothes and all, but I'm a little afraid that the water might be hot.
Posted by jodi at 05:07 PM | Comments (5) | categories: canadians love to talk about the weather
August 19, 2007
it's too hot
I see now how it's going to be. Hundred degree days stretch out before me like an endless, hot, freshly laid gooey black road in a flat, treeless, relentlessly sunny landscape. I'm beginning to believe that I won't experience a day with temperatures in the double digits again until I set foot back in Canada (and not just because in Canada the thermometer doesn't go to a hundred).
I'm trying to get a new piece of clothing made every night to wear the next day and failing miserably, not because I'm not excited about this project or because I don't have the time to sew, but because I drop every article of sewing like a hot potato as soon as I get to the point where it needs to be ironed. I've made two of these gathered skirts and they're easy and painless, just a big tube gathered onto a strip of t-shirt material, but I want to do some more complex, tailored things, professional clothes, shirts with buttons, shapely aprons, pleats, darts. IT'S TOO HOT. Tonight I cut out a charming little surplice top from a vintage pattern (printed in 1970, isn't it odd to be the same age as something that can be called "vintage"?), but when I had all the pieces cut it hit me: facings. Need to be ironed. Bah.
Posted by jodi at 08:57 PM | Comments (10) | categories: canadians love to talk about the weather : wardrobe project
February 02, 2007
I just have to make fun of Athenians one more time and then I promise I'll try to stop.
On the front of the Red & Black today:
It's positively terrifying, isn't it?
Posted by jodi at 12:20 PM | Comments (18) | categories: athens : canadians love to talk about the weather
February 01, 2007
I take it back. But only a little.
So half an hour after I called everyone at UGA a princess I left the house for the studio, and as it turns out there was a little bit of slush-like stuff here and there on the grass, and pooling on the windshields of parked cars. Still, there was nothing but regular old water on the roads, and this slush-stuff melted pretty quickly. It was nice to see a bit of white though. Thanks, Georgia!
Posted by jodi at 08:03 PM | Comments (3) | categories: athens : canadians love to talk about the weather
Once upon a time, in a strange land far from home, there lived 34000 princesses. . .
Who were so afraid to go anywhere in the rain that their university was closed for the day.
People. There is no ice. No sleet, no freezing rain, certainly nothing resembling snow. It is cold, and it is raining, and rained all last night. And this morning, a message that the University of Georgia is closed for the day due to "weather". Due to RAIN. And of course, because of this crazy rain hysteria, I am afraid to ride my bike to the studio in the rain today (yes, the university is closed, but grad students don't really get days off and besides, we have an exhibition to install this afternoon) because one of those wacky ice-and-rain-fearing Athens drivers might plow into me on Milledge, and also I lost the red flashing light off the back of my bike the other day. So I'm being a princess too, and cadging a lift to studio. Those people on Milledge drive like they want to kill me on a normal day, so best to just avoid them today.
Yesterday morning was sunny but cold, and I biked past patches of ice in the road and on a few campus sidewalks. Like, several square feet of pavement and brick with a thin, patchy layer of ice on it. It's amazing we all survived it, and amazing that the governor didn't call out the national guard to rescue us from clearly life threatening conditions.
Posted by jodi at 09:33 AM | Comments (13) | categories: athens : canadians love to talk about the weather
January 16, 2007
lookit this lookit this!
I'm trying not to get my hopes up here, folks. If I have to freeze my ankles riding my bike in the wet cold and don't even get to see some wintry mix for my suffering, it'll be a sad Thursday. Plus this might be one of those jokes like when the guy on NPR in the morning said there was a 100% chance of rain and it was sunny and HOT all day. I'm not entirely sure that the phrase "wintry mix" means the same thing in Georgia that it means in normal places where people know what winter is. But, still! Wintry mix! Maybe they'll panic and shut the whole university down and I can go outside and play all day. In the wintry mix. Woo!
Posted by jodi at 07:39 AM | Comments (12) | categories: canadians love to talk about the weather
November 30, 2006
falling dark, rainy day
Damp, gray days like this one make me dislike Georgia a little less; any break from the relentless sun is a blessed relief. It feels like fall on a day like this, feels like I wish it had felt in September. Biking home in a t-shirt on the last day of November felt pleasant and unnatural at the same time, and while I could get used to mild weather like this, you just can't get mild weather like this without also having to take the oppressive heat that precedes it. A week from tomorrow I'll be back where I belong, and I hope it's snowing when I get there.
Posted by jodi at 08:27 PM | Comments (2) | categories: canadians love to talk about the weather
March 11, 2006
More spring
Today I found outside my gate:
One grape hyacinth.
One plain old ordinary hyacinth.
And out front, the irises are in full bloom. In March!
The irises are seriously freaking me out. Back home right now we'd only have crocuses (Pete, do we have crocuses yet?). The scilla won't even come up for another month. How soon do you think the irises will die back here? Should I be cutting the leaves back in May, for crying out loud? (hah, of course I will cut them in May, otherwise I won't be able to make paper with them before I go home for the summer).
I remember when I was a kid and the temperature would get up to 4 Celsius during March break, and I'd joyfully run outside in a t-shirt and bask in the cold sunshine and leap the crunchy piles of melting snow, feeling light and free, unfettered by all those heavy winter garments. I still consider the first day it goes up to 4 degrees to be the definitive sign of spring (which makes Pete mental, sorry, baby).
Today I wore these:
Flip flops on March break and I'm not even on vacation. Well, I never.
Okay. I'm still pissed that there's no winter here, but this early spring is pretty nice nonetheless. I'll really be whingeing a few weeks from now, though, when summer starts. Because, y'all, I hate the heat. I'd rather have 40 below than ever sit at a bus stop again watching the sweat come out of the backs of my knuckles and splash on the sidewalk. Ew!
Ceramic baby head also enjoys basking in the sunshine, much better than lying half-buried under the musty ivy where I found him.
Posted by jodi at 11:23 PM | Comments (4) | categories: athens : canadians love to talk about the weather
August 30, 2005
Learning the language?
Yesterday morning, NPR news said that there was a 100% chance of rain for Athens in the afternoon. Silly me, I thought that meant we would be getting some rain, so I brought my umbrella.
But apparently, "100% chance of rain" is just some crazy Southern-talk for "sunny and hot".
So today, when NPR news told me that Athens had a 70% chance of rain for the afternoon, I took my umbrella out of my satchel and left it at home.
Which turned out to be a pretty good call, because that seems to mean "hot, humid and windy".
So, what will they say when it's going to rain?
Posted by jodi at 08:59 PM | Comments (8) | categories: athens : canadians love to talk about the weather