The Sound of Winter

Thursday 10 July 2008

The sound of winter is a decidedly foreign sound to drought-worn ears. We have had some rain smatterings this winter. Indeed, once it even beat on the flat roof of my house, sending Lester to my side. It's not until you hear it again that you realise how much you have missed the sound, how it joys you up, kids you down. I own no gumboots. Today at work I saw footprints from people's shoes in the carpet and thought, "I forgot this happens."

The sound of winter is the wind, blowing southerly off the ocean, freezing the snot in the nostrils of dogs whose owners are stupid enough to let them hang out the window while they run the car heater on 5. The wind whips, it slices, it dices my long red coat around my calves when I walk for the train.

The sound of winter is my heater. The simple pleasure and thankfulness of instant heat, instant hot water. Could you imagine having to wash your clothes in winter in a mangle? Imagine the freezing cold of the air against your chapped hands as they work in the hot water and steam? We have it so easy. The sound of winter is my heater going. Heating myself. Which is fine, you know? We all deserve to be heated. But then, having one heater for one person while some people have no heaters at all - that doesn't sound fair not matter how softly you say it.

The sound of winter is my gums chowing down - the more carbs the better. It is so cold this week; therefore I must eat for 7. My friend Jane and I just spent two hours on the phone and probably an hour was spent talking about food in all its permutations. It's no coincidence that neither of us are having sex. Sometimes we just said something like "naan bread" and then made Homer sounds afterwards. We are meeting on Saturday for a yum cha. I plan on wearing elastic waisted pants.

8 comments

  1. what do you consider cold? it gets very cold here (below zero) routinely in winter. curious what you experience...

    a little about apples 2 apples.

    it is played like this: the judge plays an adjective and reads it aloud (w/3 accompanying synonyms). the other players play their nouns and announce them aloud.

    the judge closes the round after 24-36 hours and declare which card they deem to be their favorite. the player whose noun is chosen then begins the next round by playing the next adjective as a new post w/3 accompanying synonyms. and so on and so forth.

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  2. That is a fascinating avatar, Jon. You look like a disciple of the flying spaghetti monster :)

    What's cold here? Ahh, well, okay. This is probably where you will laugh and howl and say, "That's not a knife. This is a knife", but it's currently 8 degrees celcius (46 f) with a decent wind chill factor.

    It's cold, alright? :)

    Thanks for game plan. I shall jump in on the next turn.

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  3. the dog bit cracked me up!?!

    wind, rain, flapping jackets, the drone of the heater, the smell of hot food

    all sounds like winter to me :-)

    well done

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  4. Yeah I just looked at your weather forecast and I have NO sympathy. 65F? Winter? Bwwahhahaha. Then again, Jon would laugh at my winter, so I suppose it all depends on where you sit.

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  5. Are you looking at Google's weather forecast? That thing is ALWAYS wrong.

    It's forecast 55 tomorrow. 42 overnight. That's cold enough for me :) Cold enough to wish I had an electric blanket, and to warm my feet on my purple hot water bottle :)

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  6. Thanks, Kel :)

    (I see Maggie on Monday. I missed my last session so it's been a whole month. I really, really missed it :)

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  7. I was looking at Weather.com. 55 isn't that cold for winter, either.

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  8. No, you're right, it's not. I've been thinking for an entire week how wussy I am in comparison to you guys who get, like, snow and stuff.

    Melbourne is actually in the "cold" zone of our country though :) I guess it feels cold when you know that the top half is tropical :)

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