October 16, 2008

It's fall

It really is: today was so chill and sideways-lit. The afternoon was lovely, but there was a lot of bluster and I wished I'd had a scarf.

Which makes it hard to remember that just last Sunday we were doing this:



Because it was SO SO WARM. Everyone was out sun-bathing by the lake. And me, because I am the daughter of one Barbara Mesle, which means that I am hard core, did this:


I enjoyed my swim, though maybe not as much as enjoyed the idea of my swim. It was cold out there.

Chicago weather has a terrible reputation, but it always sort of irritates me to hear people complain about it. There are always these great warm days interspersed through things, and I love the fickleness of that, just like I love cold days in summer.

Anyway, this second video is unrelated to weather or swimming, but I suppose it does have a tenuous beach connection. Here's Elliot's current version of "row, row, row your boat." In it's own way, it too is rather hard core. I love the idea that it's sort of pump-up football music.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awesome! Awesome! Baba loved watchin the Plum running up and down the Lake we love, shouting his name! Awesome! MIMI

Beck said...

I had to dig the winter coats out last night. And we're supposed to get FREAKING SNOW here this weekend. Sigh.

Anonymous said...

I beg to differ. I've been in 40 states and 14 countries, and Chicago has the worst weather I've ever experienced. NYC in June is comprabable. In summer Chicago is unbearably hot and humid, I don't know anyone who enjoys getting out of the shower, drying off, then feeling like you're in the shower again the second you step outside into the "fresh" air. In winter the weather is unbearably cold and humid, sucks the life out of your lungs, crystallizes your breath which should be instead giving you your life force. And the snow, is scant and meager - no reward for the almost solid 5 months of mute gray sky cover - not even real clouds or storms in the winter, just flat grey. It seems to snow constantly, wussy flurries that rarely amount to an impressionable depth. Both winter and summer are too prohibitive to spend much outdoors time comfortably. And when it snows, the snow is pretty for about 10 minutes, until it turns filthy-city-black. And the snow is basically useless, because the ground is flat. Then there's the wind that literally blows so hard sometimes it rips your shoe off your foot as you're stepping onto the bus, or pushes you over. I remember walking down the street so bundled up that my coworker didn't recognize me on the street. People are bent over into the weather, staring at the ground, can't even look up or else they might slip. There are also the unavoidable city-pedestrian wind tunnels created by poor architecture and engineering. I think it's a miserable place. Sure, there are a few days in autumn and spring that are tolerable, especially in a nice place like Oak Park where the greens are fantastic and plenty, but man, that humidity is purely stifling and the stickiness negates most of the visual beauty. At least, for me, a dry Westerner used to 11,000 ft. mountains and 13% humidity air. Living in Chicago was torture.

But I'm glad to hear you make the most of it, and are at ease in a place much like the area where you grew up. You would probably feel as uncomfortable living in a dry place like Salt Lake where I grew up, as much as I disliked living in Chicago.

Jenny said...

Wow, Amy REALLY hates Chicago weather. And Sarah, you rock that bikini.