falling uphill

[the_siobhan]

So due to the pussies in the Ravonettes cancelling their show, I got to get in my introvert time in last night after all. Bliss.

(Does living in Toronto give me street cred now? "Yo' you think you Detroiters are tough with your drive-bys and your 8 Mile. Well, I live in Plague City!"

Can the Zombie Apocalypse be far behind?)

As a direct result of this, I can see the office floor and my to-do pile is all neatly filed in a single place waiting for action. It's not really any smaller, but being all in one place counts for something, right?

Right?

I also managed to go to the gym today, which makes me very happy and puts a big ol' dent in the I-hate-the-world mood I've been in lately. I found I can get my cardiac in if I stick to things I can hang onto, like bicycles and stairmasters. I crashed into the wall as soon as I got off the thing of course. But it's Toronto so I pretend like nothing happened and every body else pretends like they didn't notice.

I also came to the realization that it's been long enough since I've been in a smokey environment that any temporary environmental effects would have worn off by now. I'm finally going to have to quit kidding myself and face the fact that my lungs really are getting worse.

Well, I'm not happy about it by any means, but at the same time I know I'm getting off easy. I know people who have asthma attacks any time they do anything physically strenuous and I'm nowhere near that bad. So I'll try to stay out of smoke as much as I can, I'll talk to my doctor about it, and we'll see what happens.

I have to be one of the very few people who is looking forward to the non-smoking bylaw going universal next year.

-------------------------

It's been very spring-like in Ontario for the last couple of weeks, going from clear and sunny to raining like a bastard and back again in a matter of hours. Everything alive in this corner of world is blindingly green, embarrassingly fertile and madly spunking all over the place.

Meanwhile, I've been reading all these posts from people on my friends list who live in England and there has been an awful lot of bitching going on about how hot it is over there. Out of curiosity, I went to the BBC weather page and looked up the current temperatures.

As a result, I have this to say to you.

Y'all are a bunch of pussies.

Some of you are coming to Toronto in August. You will be finding out exactly why it is that people in North America drink their beer so cold.

Comments

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

highs 20-25C, 68-75F.

Pussies, indeed.

Same damn weather as where I am, and it's about as delightful spring as can be.

[reddragdiva]

You have to keep in mind that this is a country that appears to have gained Australia's weather without having clue one about 'air conditioning'.

[inulro.livejournal.com]

I seem to be the only person unaffected by the heat yesterday. I thought it was rather pleasant.

But:
a) I don't live in London
b) I'm from Toronto
c) it wasn't that humid.

In Toronto I spend the summer wilting and wanting to die.

[girfan.livejournal.com]

I have to be one of the very few people who is looking forward to the non-smoking bylaw going universal next year.

After suffering with asthma for a few years, I have to join you with wishing for non-smoking bylaws.

(Temperatures)
Since I lived in Chicago most of my life, I do know the joys of extreme temperatures, but, as David said, the lack of air conditioning makes it seem a lot worse. My workplace doesn't have it and the shop is a corner one with full length plate glass windows facing west. Even with fans, it's quite sticky. Though, after surviving the heat wave of 1995 in Chicago (700+ dead), nothing seems bad.

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

Draperies close for a reason. (:

[girfan.livejournal.com]

?
Was this a reference to my place of work? If yes, there are no draperies on the store windows.

My house is fairly cool all summer and we have yet to have to buy a fan. This is mostly due to the fact our house is mid-terrace.

[inulro.livejournal.com]

Part of the reason we bought this house is we looked at it on one of the hottest days of the year and it was still wonderfully cool on the ground floor. It gets a little warm upstairs.

My workplace is also not air conditioned but I'm in this weird corner office where it only gets too hot about 2 days a year. And I can wear shorts & sandals if I like. (And suddenly I spend a lot of time in the OR suite making sure our scopes are being cleaned properly, something I won't do on pain of death the other 363 days of the year).

[gregclow.livejournal.com]

I have to be one of the very few people who is looking forward to the non-smoking bylaw going universal next year.

Honey, you ain't the only one by a long shot.

I'll be very happy to be able to go out to a concert or pub and not come home smelling like an ashtray.

And Sheryl - aka Allergy Girl - will also be very happy to be able to go out to a concert or pub and not come home smelling like an ashtray, with the added bonus of being able to breathe for more than five minutes at said concert or pub.

the economics of addiction

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I actually thought of you guys when I posted that.

I've known a number of people who said that they would love for Toronto clubs to go smokeless because then they could go out dancing again. Only trouble is, when they say that they mean once every three or four months, while the clubs make money off the people who are there week after week after week.

In the group of six to ten people that shows up at the pub every single weekend, I'm always in a minority of one or two.

Re: the economics of addiction

[lilactime.livejournal.com]

I like breathing, breathing is good.

And I do get your point about repeat business. Once the bylaw is passed, I will likely go out more, but not necessarily to the same place week after week. *That* part of my reasoning for not coming out has nothing to do with the bylaw and had been part of my philosophy long before I was diagnosed as being allergic to the whole world; hell, it even predates my decision to quit smoking. I just find going to the same place week after week to be a little boring and tedious. To some bar owners, that makes me a less than ideal patron. *shrug* Too bad.

[2ndaryairplane.livejournal.com]

can't wait for that bylaw to go live.
when i stop drinking for couple of month and go out to a club, i still wake up with a hangover and feeling like crap, all because of the second hand smoke.

[fross.livejournal.com]

ai!

even though the temperature is only high 20s, we're stuck in London's own microcosm of oppressive humidity and general distastefulness which is making it seem far worse. and of course, aircon is practically non-existant.

friend of mine's office was 34C yesterday, which goes a bit further to show what the heat is actually like...

relative hell

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I think what you fail to realize is that while places that are choking for the middle-class consumer dollar -- like say, shopping malls and movie theatres -- are air conditioned to arctic proportions, places where reprobates like me hang out -- like say, clubs, or any place where anybody might actually work -- are air-conditioned with somewhat intermittant results.

I worked in a lab for a while where I was called to carpet because none of my experiments worked. I had to explain to the people who were supposedly experts in the field that the organisms I was working with were heated by the fermenters to a temperature of 37 degrees Celcius -- but there was no cooling mechanism in place and the lab was running at 45.

(I used to strip down to my knickers and a lab coat to survive my shifts there.)

PS

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Just be happy we didn't hold C8 in Montreal in July... ;->

Re: PS

[fross.livejournal.com]

yeah, all the igloos would have melted!

;)

[valiantra.livejournal.com]

I understand how they feel knowing the temperatures they are used to, in their minds they are in the middle of the effects of global warming. As one who has spent the last 9 summers in London I can understand their discomfort, after all it is all a matter of what you grow accustomed to..
all I can say is hahaha...Im not going to London this Summer.. :)

[valiantra.livejournal.com]

I would have attended anyway except for that damn DWI 18 years ago and the hell with the weather

[razorjak.livejournal.com]

> (Does living in Toronto give me street cred
> now? "Yo' you think you Detroiters are tough with
> your drive-bys and your 8 Mile. Well, I live in
> Plague City!"
>
> Can the Zombie Apocalypse be far behind?)

Dammit ... now I can't get the image of you starring in Chopperchicks in Zombie Town outta my head.

[purplesofa.livejournal.com]

No kidding about the English being pussies with respect to weather.

I was in Canterbury, England in late January or early February this year. I finished doing the tourist thing and headed for Canterbury West train station. Didn't quite know my way, couldn't quite find a map, and the weather wasn't quite pleasant. But I didn't mind about an hour walking around in rain & wind, and caught the train back to London.

Upon returning to Victoria station, I discovered transit chaos. Tube lines were jammed. Reports came in of motorway pileups. This was all due to a bit of wet snow or something, that hardly bothered me (a former Ottawan). Eventually I made it to Paddington station(I could not get to Bayswater where my hotel was). So I walked another 45 min, in dark, sleet and wind, but really it wasn't that uncomfortable.

I guess the weather made me homesick for North America. So instead of crawling into bed, I went to the nearby mall for sushi (reminds me of my neighbourhood) and a movie (Chicago). It was great!

[nimrodiel.livejournal.com]

I am still hoping that Chicago passes a non smoking aw (as they were taking about over the winter). It woud make me happy to be able to breathe when going out.