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It’s freakin’ hot!

Rather, it’s freaking hot outside.  At present, it’s a tolerable 25 Celsius (granted, the humidex pushes it to 29).  For those that are unfamiliar with metric, that totals up to 77 Fahrenheit, with a humidex reading of 85.  So, still relatively tolerable, but we’re supposed to get higher.  Right now, as I type this in the cool confines of my office, it’s great.  Step outside, however, and it feels like a wall of really moist, hot air.  You become wet in seconds.

I’m not a social justice blogger.

I’ve had a few people ask me about that and what my views are on different subjects and I really have to say, I am not a social justice blogger.  There are way more people on tumblr or on wordpress or on livejournal or any other blogging site that do an infinitely superior job keeping up to date on issues that affect everyone.  Me, I’m just the guy who reblogs stuff and has an opinion.  But most importantly, I’m also still learning about a lot of stuff.  I remain quiet most of the time because I don’t know what it’s like to be an Afrcian American woman, a woman in general, trans*, gay, lesbian, disabled, or any number of other things that affect people a great deal.  I merely read what they say, and go from there.  If I have an opinion, I try very hard to actually formulate an intelligent opinion.  So I’ll research about a topic and learn as much as I can.  What I do know about social justice blogging is that there are a greater number of people who do it way better than I do.  And I’m pretty sure a lot of those people will say that they aren’t even that good.

A lazy day means installing a new OS on the office computer.

For years (since 2007 in fact) we’ve had iMac computers in the office.  And a couple of years ago we had started to get messages from different software that we couldn’t update to current version because our OS was the wrong version.  Finally, we decided to get Snow Leopard.  But the thing I really hate about this situation is that we have been begging our head office for new machines for three years.  But each time we get told no.  I truly believe it’s because we’re one of the smallest newspapers in the company.  But it still irks me that we have to file such things and then get told that it would be a frivolous expense.  Dude, seriously, if we didn’t have computers, then there’d be no newspaper.  So therefore it is not a frivolous expense.

A lazy day may also mean some writing.

Maybe.  I’m not sure right now, because I have new ideas bouncing around in my head (stop it brain, stop it!).  I do want to get more done on Rocket Fox (not only want, but need to), plus work a bit more on the rewrite of Black Mask and Pale Rider.  And then this morning the words “Dragons of N’ftara” for some reason came into my head.  Don’t ask, my brain does weird things like that and just makes up words.  So thanks brain, now I have another world to craft, societies to make, and characters to design.  This on the heels of Rocket Fox which has already had a huge amount of world building.

I can understand the differences between summer and winter.

I really can, but it still is something that I weigh the pros and cons about.  I know that in winter if I get cold I can just put on more clothes, and in summer I can’t walk around naked (well, I probably could, but no one wants to see that now, do they?).  But I also like summer better for one big reason.  The days are longer.  The sun is up here at 4 in the morning.  I’ve lived in places where it was up at 3.  And in the evening, the sun doesn’t go down until 10 or 10:30.  Again, in some of those places I’ve lived, the sun was setting at 11 at night.  That’s just freakin’ awesome!  Compare that to winter, when it’s still dark at 8 in the morning (or 9 depending upon the locale).  Or it sets at 4:30 or earlier.  It’s one of the biggest reasons why I hate winter, because I have to deal with a heavy feeling for a good number of months.  It’s called SADs, and it really hits me hard sometimes.

This blog post is two pronged, as it will deal with two topics, both related to the same idea.  That idea is weather, and it especially revolves around how much warmer it has been lately.

As most people who have read this blog have come to see, I come from Saskatchewan.  That rectangular shaped province in the middle of the prairies, sandwiched neatly between Alberta and Manitoba.  While we have a great number of attractions, tourist sites, resources, industry and more, this province is known for two stereotypical things; it is incredibly flat, and the weather is incredibly harsh.  Alright, we also have weird terms for common objects like Vico for chocolate milk, Bunny Hug for a hoodie and ‘flip a shit hook’ for pulling a U-turn.

Focusing on weather.  Normally in this neck of the woods (or, rather, grasslands) normals for the period of early January are highs of -10 Celsius and overnight lows of -21 Celsius.  Occasionally, we get socked hard with overnight lows of -30 Celsius.  I’ve even lived through nights as cold as -40 (once you hit -40, it doesn’t matter about converting from Celsius to Fahrenheit).  21 days straight as a matter of fact.  Presently, however, we are seeing daytime highs of +6 Celsius and overnight lows of -1 Celsius.  Essentially, we just finished having a brown Christmas (still true as this weekend is Ukrainian Christmas).  Parts of the province are even setting records, as Maple Creek, in the south western corner of the province, had a daytime high of +15 yesterday.

While this warmer weather is great, I am still wary of it.  This time of year is the cold and flu season, and the colder weather actually makes it harder for viral infection to survive (though, I do not recommend standing outside naked in a snow storm to test any theories of destroying viral bacteria in the body because you’ll end up with another problem; hypothermia).  Warmer weather means that the chance of getting sick is higher.  We’re caught off guard, in a way, because the warmer weather fills us with this feeling of euphoria.  Shuck off the parkas, bring out the fall denim jackets, it’s warm out.  One thing I’ve learned in this province, the weather can change at any time.

I am also left wary, because we still have 75 days left until the first official day of spring.  March 21 isn’t that far away, but there’s still enough time for us to get hit hard with normal temperatures and even below normal temperatures.  February, as I have come to learn over the years, can be a vicious mistress.  ‘Tis the month of St. Valentine’s Day, a day of love and companionship, but here in Saskatchewan February has a cold, cold heart.  Maybe this time she’ll warm up a bit.

That was the first point on this topic about the weather.  Now onto the second topic, which is actually much more serious.

This portion, which is actually much shorter because I do not claim to be a scientist, deals with climate change.  I’d really like to invite any climate change deniers to study the weather patterns for Saskatchewan over the past 25 years.  There has been drastic changes, ones that do not come with natural flow of weather.  Winters have been much more tolerable, while summers have often been much more damp.  Rain fall has increased, we’ve even experienced cooler temperatures during the summer (with the exception of last summer).  When it does grow warmer outside, above 30 Celsius, we often take note of the increase in humidity.  You can tell the difference in this province.  We joke that ‘it’s a dry heat’ but that’s because we’re used to it.  Breathing becomes harder with higher humidity.  There is climate change happening.  We just need to open our eyes and view the world around us.  Things are different.

We have to change our own habits in order to help the Earth survive.

Over the past week, that’s been the case in this area of the world.  Constant rain, not overly heavy, but just enough to make things wet and miserable.  The sun is out today, which makes for a more pleasant situation.

The unusual weather continues around this neck of the woods.  The past few days there’s been rain and slightly cooler temperatures, but nothing completely off.  A look at the national map from Environment Canada shows that across the country the temperatures vary from east to west, with Ontario and Quebec getting up to the mid teens and low twenties (that’s in Celsius).  But it’s one temperature in particular that worries me, as might be seen on this map.

While Whitehorse, Yukon is sitting at 1 Degree Celsius, it happens to be Prince George that is the one spot to have the negative temperature, sitting at -1Degree Celsius.  Fortunately, a look at the local forecast here in Outlook shows that we are looking for some nice weather over the next three days, which is good for the Thanksgiving Day long weekend.  I must admit, however, by Friday that temperature of 10 Celsius for a high and 0 Celsius for an overnight low does give me pause.  I’m still hoping that this warmer weather does continue on into November, however.

Stands to reason, though, that we’d go from temperatures of around 30 degrees Celsius to ones closer to 10 to 15 Celsius.  This is the usual cycle here in Saskatchewan.