Snowbirds - pause for reflection

[Guido]

Winter temperature comparison chart:


50 Fahrenheit (10 C)
New Yorkers try to turn on the heat.
Canadians plant gardens.


40 Fahrenheit (4.4 C)
Californians shiver uncontrollably
Canadians Sunbathe.


35 Fahrenheit (1.6 C)
Italian Cars won't start
Canadians drive with the windows down

32 Fahrenheit (0 C)
Distilled water freezes
Canadian water gets thicker.


0 Fahrenheit (-17.9 C)
New York City landlords finally turn on the heat.
Canadians have the last cookout of the season.

-40 Fahrenheit (-40 C)
Hollywood disintegrates.
Canadians rent some videos.


-60 Fahrenheit (-51 C)
Mt. St. Helen's freezes.
Canadian Girl Guides sell cookies door-to-door.

-100 Fahrenheit (-73 C)
Santa Claus abandons the North Pole
Canadians pull down their ear flaps.


-173 Fahrenheit (-114 C)
Ethyl alcohol freezes.
Canadians get frustrated when they can't thaw the keg.

-459.4 Fahrenheit (-273 C)
Absolute zero; all atomic motion stops.
Canadians start saying "cold, eh? "


-500 Fahrenheit (-295 C)
Hell freezes over.
The Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup

[SteveH]

Got down to 25 here this morning ( + )coldest yet this year, and that's too cold for me. Glad you guys are happy up there, I don't want any part of it.

[RangerJay]

Fr. Guido,

That is priceless - hope you don't mind if I use it.

Thanks,



Jay

[safari57]

Guido - good list and pretty goshed darned accurate too.

We lived in Southern Alberta (the prairies) for a very long time and when we moved to the West Coast (near Vancouver, BC) we thought we'd died and, well, gone to heaven sort of. When we do get snow here it is fun for us and a reminder of what we left. When we were going back to visit our moms at Christmas we'd always hit brutal weather on the trip back. Not necessarily really cold in the old home town as they experience Chinook winds a lot but for us it was still very cold. For them zero was a warm day while we froze and they laughed.

It was an in the minus forties day without the windchill factored in that caused us to take the plunge and move West and we were done and gone within six weeks and have never regretted it. We'd love to winter down South but unfortunately health coverage isn't available so we winter in the best place in Canada to do so. We do look at envy though at our friends in the great Southern US of A though.

Now for that big mug of tea and watch the mole ruin my lawn. Time to help him go to sleep permanently I think. I thought they hibernated but this little guy is more active now than he was all summer. Oh well......

Barry

[jhenry]

Hi everyone! Just a note to say calgary is -10c lite snow and for past rew days was plus 14 so it melted half the 3ft snow we had! just fixed snow blower so it should not be snowing!! betsy our 325 is in getting her new shine done, her upohlstry is about finished and hard wood is in the works she heads on he first trip south in march!! Can"t wait!! baileys and garlic for you folks to keep warm! Jonathan

[Mackhopp]

Originally Posted by Guido

-500 Fahrenheit (-295 C)
Hell freezes over.
The Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup

Darned tootin' right!!

Thanks for the laugh

[Minnie's Mate]

Well, we Atlantans are going to have our part of winter this weekend. The Man is predicting 55 hours below freezing over the next three days. The high on Friday is supposed to be 34, the low 15. The low tonight is supposed to get down in the low 20's. For us southern'rs that's cold! With our humidity, that brass monkey won't be the only one freezin' his you know whats off.

[jimmini]

Desert rats at play in Quartzsite AZ.
HIGH today 73F and SUNNY
LOW tonight about 40F

[Mike Leary]

Been there done that!

[Wayne&Sam]

Originally Posted by Foiled Again

"Cold enough to freeze the balls off of a brass monkey" doesn't mean what you think.

In the days of wooden ships, cannon balls had to be stacked on the deck handy for firing. The normal pyramid was 4x4, topped by 3x3, topped by 2x2, with a single ball on the top. Now of course as the ship rolled the cannon ball stack would come undone, so someone decided to build a rack that would grip the lowest level of balls like a monkey's paw.

The first "monkeys" were made out of cast iron.

But lo, there was a serious problem. The cast iron rack and the cast iron cannon balls rusted together within days in the salty sea air.

So, as sailors normally do, they decided to improve the next generation by making it out of brass - a fine seagoing metal that corrodes much more slowly.

Unfortunately, brass does have one downside, it contracts more and faster in cold weather than does cast iron, so on a freezing cold day the "brass monkey" would literally contract so much it would pop the balls off the stack. Hence, "cold enough to freeze the balls off of a brass monkey".


Paula

Good story, but unfortunately it is not true. Check it out at Snopes

It's just an expression that has no real basis in fact.

[Minnie's Mate]

Paula is close though. In the 17th century, the primitive naval cannons were refereed to as drakes, dogs, or monkeys. Some were make of brass, thus the brass monkey. There was a brass lever used to aim the cannons called the monkey's tail. One variant of the phrase is, "...cold enough to freeze the tail off a brass monkey." The balls part probably comes from men wanting equal time with the risqué phrase, "cold as a witches #!# in a brass bra". Since the cannon had no round appendages, it was probably just made up to give equal time to the sexes.

[dogpound]

I like Paula's story better than Snoops anyway. Having served a year in Iceland and 4 years on a destroyer, sometimes in the North Atlantic I can truly appreciate paula's story. It is the same story I heard from an old "salt" when I was in the Navy.

Bob
Member Four Corners Unit/CAC
WBCCI # 10105
AIR # 28748

[Chip Arnold]

It was +3F here in N. Ga. this morning. Our elevation is around 2000' so it's a little colder than Atlanta. Good sunshine and no wind though. I grew up in New England and have seen -43F. I got my '48 Mercury running and tried to drive to Manchester, N.H. to work that day. A piece of cardboard in front of the radiator didn't keep it from freezing at which point the engine boiled. I stopped and knocked on the nearest door where I was invited in and fed breakfast. When I went back out to the Merc the hot engine had melted the ice in the radiator and I got the rest of the way to work. I added more antifreeze before heading home that night. A side note: don't comb your hair with water before going out at those temps. :-)

[Gene]

When we lived west of Denver in the mountains, we'd have periods of temps as low as -35˚ or lower every few years—at least before about 1990. It's true, -10˚ does feel warm after some of that. It isn't as cold where we live now—I don't think it's been colder than -15˚ since we've been here, though that may have more to do with climate change than locality. We used to have 100-160" of snow each winter, but here we've only had 30-73". We miss real winters. Having lived in the NE, those winters were unreal—ice storms, heavy wet snow, high humidity and winds with the cold cutting through everything. I never got used to that, but Colorado cold is fine with me.

I would prefer summer highs to be no more than 68˚. My father was born in Canada, might have something to do with it, eh?

Gene