So I've bitched before about the snow and cold, but I've gotta say, I was actually getting starting to get used to it. Every morning for while there, I'd go to work on the torture machine thinking, 'Okay, surely this will be the day that I decide that it's just too cold to do this', but I'd get to work, and it just wasn't that bad. And when it was, it was usually more about the precipitation than it was about the temperature. It's a pain in the ass biking down the road not being able to see anything because the snow is getting in your eyes. But snow really is a pretty sight when it's covering everything, and not melting immediately, thus making things even messier than they are already (above is the view from the office overlooking one of the parking lots in the complex). And it's even more enjoyable when you realize that you don't have to shovel one bit of it. That part I especially like.
This part of it, though, can kiss my fat behind. I finally reached the point of "screw that" about a week ago last Tuesday, just before the New Year. When I got to work, my face felt like it would shatter into a million pieces at the slightest touch, and this was with this thing wrapped around my chin and ears (not an ear-warmer, per se, but some piece of cloth that folds/twists/scrunches into everything from ear warmers to a toboggan - very handy) for warmth that had been quite effective in temps right around freezing. And that was last week, the beginning of the Arctic snap. This week it's been colder. Pictured above is the three day outlook including today. I would have done the seven day, but it's supposed to actually get back up to around the freezing point next Monday or Tuesday. And let me tell you, never have I looked forward to "just" freezing as much as I am now.
And just in case you think I'm being a whiny bitch (which... okay, maybe a little), even the Germans think that this is too cold. They're used to cold and having it last for months at a time (you know, actual seasons), but like I've mentioned before, usually things hover a few degrees below freezing and pretty much stay there. So even they don't like it much, which made me feel a lot better. Then again, I saw a surprising number of people on bicycles today, and even a couple of people out jogging. Insane.
But, hey, who knows. Now that I'm not going anywhere for a few days, maybe I can get a post or two done. Of course, it's taken me a week to expound on "Damn, it's cold", so we'll see. Bis nächstes mal. Tschüß!
P.S. - And since I don't want to be accused of being a tease, for those of you hoping for this from the post title, enjoy.
Update
Just as another way for me to feel sorry for myself, and to prove to you that I'm not crazy, check this out, and if you're looking at it any time after I'm actually posting this, just reference today from the various graphs (letzten 24 stunden is last 24 hours, woche is week, and monats is month, and jahres is year). Right now, it's -15.7℃. That's less than 4℉.
