What really annoys me is that this cost me a round of golf

I joke with people that they can plan for rain whenever I've made a tee time. When I woke up this morning I thought my prophecy would once again come true: it was cloudy and cold and ominous. But then the clouds started to clear, and while it remained cold it turned into a promising afternoon. So I was excited as I drove a couple of blocks to pick up my friend Cory.

I was considerably less excited when I got about halfway through the intersection of 1st Ave and Broad St. Basically, this happened:



Yeah. I got in an accident. And as a result I didn't get to play golf today, which may or may not have caused all of the clouds to burn away and temps to rise into the mid 60s. I spent most of my afternoon on the phone with my insurance company (actually not the worst experience in the world). I was surprised how many people asked whether anyone was hurt in the accident. I laughed it off and said no, and wondered why no one asked whether or not I missed a tee time. How rude.

Anyways, this is what my fender is supposed to look like:



And this is what my fender actually looks like:




Yarg. Now I have to decide between golf and football tomorrow. Booooo!

The best $400 I wish I didn't not spend

I know there will be little sympathy for me from my readers on the East Coast who deal with heat and humidity, but it's been brutally hot out here the past couple of days. Highs have been in the upper 90s, and while it cools off some at night, with daylight until 9:30 it takes a loooong time for the evening to become comfortable. What makes the heat difficult to deal with is the lack of air conditioning in my apartment, and its apparent imperviousness to evening cooling. Huan and I were playing Wii tennis this evening when I decided to measure the temperature. Given this was with a meat thermometer, so it isn't that precise, but here's what I found:

Inside apartment: 92
Outside apartment: 76
Medium rare beef: 140

So while our apartment wasn't quite "rare", it was a full 16 degrees warmer than the outdoors. Huan jokes that he might sleep on the porch. This is sad, but only because I'm jealous he thought of the idea before me.

Sadder still is that I was at Home Depot last night in anticipation of the heat. I decided that a $60 fan would be sufficient rather than following the lemmings that were buying the portable A/C units for $400 a pop. Clearly, I'm an idiot. If it doesn't cool off tomorrow I'm going to spend whatever it costs to get an air conditioned hotel, and if it doesn't cool off the day after that, I'm going to buy an A/C unit.

Smug Seattle

This is the kind of attitude from "native" Seattlites that bewilders me.

It's one thing to have pride in your home, whether it be a town or a region or a country, but they don't really have that here in Seattle. They have anti-pride. They aren't ashamed of aspects of the city, but rather they share a smug happiness when transplants (like myself) find things about the city that are disagreeable. This is unlike many places I've been... New Yorkers have no problem telling you why your city is inferior because there is nothing you can do there that they can't do in New York. Folks from DC think its quaint that you might have a "mayor" in your town, because they have a "president." People in LA complain about the traffic, but it seems a worthwhile trade for the weather, the beautiful people, and the access to beaches and mountains.

But in Seattle it seems chic to brag about being able to deal with the gray. I've blogged about the weather a lot, and I'd be lying if I said it didn't take a little time to adapt. But let's get serious: it's not very hard to adapt to "mild." This isn't Minneapolis in the winter, or New Orleans in the summer. Who brags about adjusting to the middle? And who brags about one of the bad aspects of their city?

Seattle has a lot to be proud of: it's clean, it has stunning views of mountains to the east and west, there's more outdoors activities nearby than any other major city in the US, there's a great music scene, it is home to several wildly successful companies... Seriously. Show some pride. You aren't Dallas (which has nothing to brag about, yet Texans just seem to love it).

I'm shutting up about the weather

So today was the kind of day when people who complain about the weather (i.e. me and me) in Seattle shut up and say "Oh, that's what you mean when you say the weather is perfect in the summer." It was stunning today... low 70s, light breeze, and more than enough sun to rejuvenate everyone who's been indoors for 6 months. I'm pretty excited about the idea of playing 18 holes of golf after work, which is a legitimate possibility here.

That said, it wouldn't have hurt anyone to sprinkle in a day like this here or there in March.

Another benefit of so much sun is that I found out that I had a view of Mt Rainier from my bedroom (sadly, our balcony is blocked by other apartment buildings, so we can't see Rainier from there). I've lived here for three months and I'm not sure I knew that before. My buddy Pat is in town for a couple weeks and he was bowled over by how impressive the mountain is. Like an idiot I didn't think to take a picture until it was dusk, so even with some Photoshop work it doesn't appear as impressive as it is in person. Still, not something you see in DC.

Weather Update

I had to turn on the heat this morning. For those of you without a calendar handy, it's May 3. Heat. Because it was cold. It was almost more of a kick in the pants when I opened the shades to find that it was gloriously sunny. But that didn't warm anything up.

Tinged with homesickness

Good trip to and from the East Coast this past weekend. Bullets:

• Flights on Delta were mediocre. I actually got some sleep on the red eye on Thursday night, despite sitting next to a guy who generated heat all night. Got stuck in a middle seat from RDU-ATL, which is luckily a 45 minute flight. Note to airlines: make the investment in personal video screens. For the second time in a month I had to watch "The Holiday" because Lufthansa and Delta make everyone watch the same entertainment. Just a brutally bad movie.
• I miss nice people. Everyone in NC smiles and talks to you and is generally pleasant.
  
• I miss tan people, including myself. Now, as any responsible person I'm freaked about skin cancer, but I didn't realize how pasty I had become until I put on my new black golf shoes on Friday. I thought something was wrong with the lighting. Nope. I was just brutally pale, like everyone else in Seattle. People in NC had color. The girls all looked great.
• I miss the warmth. Obviously I won't be complaining in July when it is gorgeous here and awful back East, but high 70s, low 80s, sun, pleasant breezes... it couldn't have been better. Tough to get back on the plane.

Not much else to report from the weekend. Played great tee-to-green golf but couldn't buy a putt. Wedding was very nice, but I was sad I didn't have my wedding betting group because the combo of the Duke Chapel (long aisle) and a Greek ceremony would have led to some interesting bets. Also, a bridesmaid fainted (she recovered enough to get drunk at the reception), and I'm not putting that as a prop bet for all future weddings.

Weather forecasts here are worthless

Life remains dull. Which is why I'm posting on the weather. Today was gorgeous. 65 degrees, sunny, Rainier and the Olympics were both visible (which is kind of the measure of how nice the weather is), just amazing. The forecast, however, called for nothing of the sort. It called for the exact same weather that has been predicted for the past six weeks: cloudy, chance of rain, mid 40 temps. This kind of unpredictability is going to be terrible as I try and squeeze in rounds of golf during the off-season.

Man, I sound like an old, boring man. Better posts coming.