I. Am. On. The. Wrong. Side. Of. The. F..king. Pond!

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Sinned
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Re: I. Am. On. The. Wrong. Side. Of. The. F..king. Pond!

Post by Sinned »

I don;t know if I've told this story on this site before but it's absolutely true - no made up details. I was working in ToysRUs one Christmas and in that store the entrance and exit doors are opposite each other with a Customer Service counter in between. I was on Meet 'n' Greet inside the entrance way in my blue TRU fleece. It was winter and when both sets of doors were open there was a decidedly icy wind blowing through between them. It was dark, about 8pm and it was snowing a blizzard outside - you get the idea. I was cold and damp and, believe it or not, there were still customers coming through the doors even at that time of night. Well anyway a guy walked through the door and he was about 6 foot 8 with shoulders to match and he was wearing a Hawaiian shirt and shorts. I greeted him and asked him if he was not cold dressed like that and he said in an American-type drawl, "Naw, this is like summer to me. I'm from Alaska." :lol:

Tom, I thought that the Irish were supposed to be tough also - after all if the wind is coming from the west then you get all the Atlantic weather first and take the sting out of it before it hits the west coast and Wales.
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Re: I. Am. On. The. Wrong. Side. Of. The. F..king. Pond!

Post by crfriend »

Sinned wrote:I thought that the Irish were supposed to be tough also - after all if the wind is coming from the west then you get all the Atlantic weather first and take the sting out of it before it hits the west coast and Wales.
Ah, but there's the rub. Hills, rain, and cooling. The winds headed to the Emerald Isle flow across the North Atlantic Drift which warms them and injects moisture. Those winds are then intercepted by the hills on that verdant isle and when the water precipitates out it cools the air. This, then travels further eastward across the Irish Sea and gets cooled and picks up whatever moisture it can. The net result is a bunch of very hardy Yorkshire and Welsh types who just have to put up with it unless they have the means to get out.

Ireland is green for a reason -- it gets the warmth that should have been directed at New England, which means we get cold and stinking wet in the winter. Making matter worse, climate change has altered the way things work so nowadays New England doesn't get anything like a cold that can kill -- quite unlike in centuries past -- we just get a cold that we wish would kill us but won't.
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Re: I. Am. On. The. Wrong. Side. Of. The. F..king. Pond!

Post by Kirbstone »

Dennis,

The prevailing Sou-Westerlies are invariably mild, sometimes warm, but often wet. It's the Easterlies off the steppes of Siberia that we find cold. The Westerlies prevail however and when we've finished with our weather we pass it on to you, used & second hand.

Tom
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Re: I. Am. On. The. Wrong. Side. Of. The. F..king. Pond!

Post by Kilted_John »

Fred in Skirts wrote:My son-in-law visits GB on a fairly regular basis for work. He is no slouch at bad weather living in the Rocky mountains near Denver Colorado. He says that the weather in England and Scotland where he has to go is "NASTY". :blue: He says it is not so much the chill in the air but the dampness that drives the chill bone deep that bothers him. This is a guy that grills meat in the back garden with 6 inches of snow on the ground and a temperature of 10 degrees F in a light shirt and shorts.

My take on weather is will the heater keep me warm or the air conditioner keep me cool, and the roof keep me dry! :rofl: :rofl:
The difference is that Colorado is very dry. Not much in the way of humidity. If he visits the Seattle area during the winter, same thing. He'll feel frozen. Even our snow is different than the stuff found in CO. Very wet, almost slushy when frozen.

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Re: I. Am. On. The. Wrong. Side. Of. The. F..king. Pond!

Post by crfriend »

Kilted_John wrote:The difference is that Colorado is very dry. Not much in the way of humidity.
It depends on where one is in relation to the mountains. Up high on the western side it can be quite wet. Denver is on the plains to the east of the mountains and, hence, is quite dry. Denver may be the "Mile High City" but it's squarely on the plains. Colorado Springs and Boulder are nestled right up against the Front Range and can get quite a bit of snow, but it usually melts in a day or two.

Descending from the Moffat Tunnel to Denver by train is one of the most amazing things going, and something I heartily recommend. One very memorable time I did it was when it was stormy and the train was still above the worst of it and we watched in amazement as the lightning lashed away at the plains so very far below us.
If he visits the Seattle area during the winter, same thing. He'll feel frozen.
Cold and wet is what Hell must be. Screw this fire-and-brimstone stuff; that's for pansies
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Re: I. Am. On. The. Wrong. Side. Of. The. F..king. Pond!

Post by Kirbstone »

I have just spent precisely 48 hours at our Kerry bolthole, with a gentle breeze from the East one day with single-figure temps...8-9 Centipede. Day two saw a 180 deg. wind shift into the West and temps. were immediately up around 15-16 deg. Still dry, but not for long, I expect.

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Re: I. Am. On. The. Wrong. Side. Of. The. F..king. Pond!

Post by Kirbstone »

Dennis has been at it again, sending cold Easterlies that would cut your face off and keeping our temps maybe just struggling into double figures C., despite wall-to-wall sunshine.

He took a day off yesterday, Sunday, which dawned windless and our temps climbed into the low twenties C. for the first time this year.

Glorious dawn sculling outing on our glass-like Blessington Lake with the surrounding hills perfectly reflected in it. MOH away so a long skirted dogs-walk across our local moor to the chorus of local and migratory birds. Swallows here in force now and male cuckoos compete from all points around us. No pics., alas and no recording either. Apparently in the UK yesterday was Dawn Chorus day. Well, we got plenty of it here. :D

Back to the cold Easterlies again today, so walked the dogs in trews. :blue:

Tom
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Re: I. Am. On. The. Wrong. Side. Of. The. F..king. Pond!

Post by crfriend »

Kirbstone wrote:Back to the cold Easterlies again today, so walked the dogs in trews. :blue:
I feel for you, sir.

Here, we're supposed to be averaging in the low 60s (F) and it's struggled to get into the upper 50s for weeks. I haven't seen the sun for any appreciable length of time in a month, but boy is it green here! It'd look really nice if there was enough light to actually have proper colour vision! I'd think I'd been transported to the Emerald Isle save for the nasty and backward nature of the local culture and the fact that you have it warmer there than we have it here...

Whatever happened to, "April showers bring May flowers?" At least the "40 days and 40 nights" have managed to put a (temporary) end to the local drought.
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Re: I. Am. On. The. Wrong. Side. Of. The. F..king. Pond!

Post by Taj »

crfriend wrote:
Kilted_John wrote:The difference is that Colorado is very dry. Not much in the way of humidity.
It depends on where one is in relation to the mountains. Up high on the western side it can be quite wet. Denver is on the plains to the east of the mountains and, hence, is quite dry. Denver may be the "Mile High City" but it's squarely on the plains. Colorado Springs and Boulder are nestled right up against the Front Range and can get quite a bit of snow, but it usually melts in a day or two.

Descending from the Moffat Tunnel to Denver by train is one of the most amazing things going, and something I heartily recommend. One very memorable time I did it was when it was stormy and the train was still above the worst of it and we watched in amazement as the lightning lashed away at the plains so very far below us.
If he visits the Seattle area during the winter, same thing. He'll feel frozen.
Cold and wet is what Hell must be. Screw this fire-and-brimstone stuff; that's for pansies
Lest one waxes too fond on "Crowdarado" (Not a typo, we're really too crowded.) the weather has been changing. The Denver area used to have pleasant weather. Climate change is catching up. Besides the global changes, Denver is creating it's own severe weather. The buildings and pavement, of which there are many square miles of, heat up in the relentless sun and create the Denver Cyclone. This is a big thermal that rises over the city and raises the afternoon thunderheads with it. Give those prairie storms some extra lift and energy bonus, and duck from the hail and tornadoes. We have more severe wind and snow than 50 years ago, too. There's not enough water supply for everyone that has been moving in. Don't come to the mountains if you're looking for peace and quiet. It doesn't exist anymore. Too many city dwellers are trying to get away from it all, yet bringing it all with them. Try loud music, dirt bikes, ATVs, snow machines, motorboats, generators, and loud Harleys. This is the new Colorado. I bet there's lots of quiet left in Nebraska.
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Re: I. Am. On. The. Wrong. Side. Of. The. F..king. Pond!

Post by Grok »

As an area becomes popular, and as its population expands, its appeal wilts.

Came across a thread which posed this question-can one escape traffic in California by moving to Seattle?

The answer is, its too late for that. The population has been growing, and the traffic has been going from bad to worse.
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Re: I. Am. On. The. Wrong. Side. Of. The. F..king. Pond!

Post by Kilted_John »

Grok wrote:As an area becomes popular, and as its population expands, its appeal wilts.

Came across a thread which posed this question-can one escape traffic in California by moving to Seattle?

The answer is, its too late for that. The population has been growing, and the traffic has been going from bad to worse.
It's been too late for that for a long time. Part of the issue is that Seattle seems to be set on doing "roadway diets", just like Portland. That hasn't helped, then we have the constant construction on I-405 (which is mainly because the FHWA decided to use 405 as a testbed for new construction techniques back in the early '90s and has continued to do so), then the soon to be expected loss of capacity on highway 99 when the tunnel opens, etc.

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Re: I. Am. On. The. Wrong. Side. Of. The. F..king. Pond!

Post by Gregg1100 »

The Flying Scotsman on West Somerset line in September.

http://www.west-somerset-railway.co.uk/ ... g-scotsman
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Re: I. Am. On. The. Wrong. Side. Of. The. F..king. Pond!

Post by crfriend »

Yep. I live on the wrong side of the ruddy pond... :cry:
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Re: I. Am. On. The. Wrong. Side. Of. The. F..king. Pond!

Post by Sinned »

Tom, the past few days I have been out and about in T-shirts picking grandchildren up from school, cubs and so on. The weather has been positively balmy. A bit of a chilly start today, like. I'd gladly push some of this your way.
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Re: I. Am. On. The. Wrong. Side. Of. The. F..king. Pond!

Post by Kirbstone »

Thanks, Dennis. We've got it here too. So long as you put a sock in that East wind funnel of yours we'll be OK.

We're in the low 20s each afternoon now and winds for tomorrow are forecast to average just 8Km/h, so it's single sculling (in company) across our serene Blessington Lake for my afteroon's activity. I'll be baring plenty of flesh for that.

A day of rain is forecast for Friday, the first for 6-7 weeks. The garden needs it, and how! Looking forward to a lot of skirting next week as MOH is taking a coach load of Book Club ladies over to Englandshire for a week.

Tom
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