Monday, December 08, 2008

Merry bloody summer

A few weeks ago, I sat here extolling the virtues of Spring and made some kind of greeting to the warmer months. Now, in earlyish December, I would like to take back every last fucking word I hammered out on this keyboard in praise of this time of year. So far, the first eight days of Summer have been shithouse. The heater has been on more that once so far, it’s been fucking raining or drizzling every second day, and my office is currently sitting at a chilly 18 degrees – a temperature that’s more or less matched outside.

I know this, because about half an hour ago I decided that it’d be warmer outside, wandered downstairs without my jacket, and thinking it may have just been a problem more of mindset than actual temperature, I purchased a summery mango smoothie. Then I stood outside shivering, and threw out my not so delicious icy treat in disgust and came back to the equally chilly, but somewhat more fluorescent office. In summary – this is not pleasant beer garden nor bbq weather, and I’m not fucking impressed.

I wouldn’t mind so much, but Winter was an absolute trial this year. It was cold - as winter often is – there were far too many of us living in the house, my wife had a broken arm and was generally insufferable, the power we were churning through in heating and entertainment enough to stop us from killing each other cost a small fortune in bills, and for some reason I’ll never work out, my office was heated to thirty degrees. To put it bluntly, it was a bit shit.

In Spring marched, being all promising with a couple of thirty degree days and balmy evenings, only to end in random hail storms descending on us and cloudy overcast days, and so here we find ourselves right back in some kind of screwy alterno-winter with well lit evenings.

For those of you in other states and indeed countries, I could go on about how this is not typical Melbourne summer weather, no matter how many ways you desperately try to stereotype it in a thinly veiled attempt to cover your own denial about Melbourne being so much better than say, Sydney, or indeed the whole of Queensland. But I won’t. Instead, I have one simple message for you. Fuck you all, you sun stealing motherfuckers. Why don’t you all fuck off and tend to your tractors or your suntans or whatever the fuck it is you do up there when you’re not inventing new racist slurs.

All this said, it’ll probably end up taking a swift turn from the 17 degree forecast tomorrow and end up being a nice dry forty. Which will be very nice for sitting around and enjoying a beverage or two after nightfall, but not so pleasant to actually move about in. Luckily, I’ve thought ahead and purchased this years paddling pool – an essential device for cooling down both tempers and temperatures of whiny and overheated wives and housemates alike.

I totally recommend the paddling pool to all Melburnians during the summer days. We’re so oft ill prepared to face the heat, and if you live in the inner suburbs, chances are the house you live in is a little on the old side, and your landlord is a little on the stingy side, so you’re unlikely to have air conditioning. Conveniently, most of these houses are built in a way allows you to block out the heat relatively well for several days by closing all doors and blinds during the day and not moving, then opening them all up from 10pm to 6am. It can become quite annoying, particularly if you live in a noisy neighbourhood, or own cats. Indeed, I’ve lost count of times we’ve been awoken by the sounds of thrashing, meowing and bloody great bellows of “ARGH! YOU FUCKING CUNT OF A CAT! GET OUT! OUT!!!!” accompanied by the sounds of stamping, thumping, and the occasional smash.

Last year, there was great excitement after one of the cats jumped straight through the venetian blinds and onto a stack of papers, paintings, and lots of other things that go ‘smash’ and ‘ruffle’ when you throw a high velocity cat at them. In the confusion of many belongings being scattered everywhere, and the cat trying to run out of the door at an insane pace, only to turn around and jump back out the window (via the bed and our faces), we of course awoke, grumped at the cat and each other a bit, and went back to sleep. This was of course short lived, because there was now something on the sheets, in the darkness and new found quiet, creeping about with spindly legs. VG very suddenly screamed, dramatically leaping out of bed, and I for some reason pointed out it was just a cat, when it clearly wasn’t, and went back to sleep.

This sleep was also very short lived however, because VG had now decided that the best way to resolve the issue of the mystery creepy crawly was to simultaneously hit the bed (and her wife), and try to remove the sheets off it, all while being extremely high pitched. No longer able to pretend I was asleep, I started grumping quite loudly, only to have the creepy thing now assumed to be a very large spider given all the commotion, land on my face. I too leapt out of bed, yelling. It actually turned out to be a caterpillar that had at some point been attached to the cat, and I chalked up yet another notch to the list of reasons why I should get the bed, and why VG should have to sleep on the couch.

So. The all windows open through the night plan of action does have its downfalls, but it is probably quite a lot better than having an ultraheated house on day one of a four or five day warm spell. Maybe this year we can get around the problem by tossing the cats through Krus' window then gaffa taping all the exits on his shed shut. In the morning, over our breakfast we could untape the room and enjoy the spectacle... I imagine it would be just like going out for dinner and a show, only a bit earlier in the day, and perhaps a bit bloodier. Something to ponder on, one way or the other.

In the meantime however, I will prepare the pool, and try and find my sunglasses and my best summer hats, all beautifully suited to long evenings sitting in a wading pool with some other pleb at the helm of the bbq, and a nice cool esky within reaching distance. I might even get a heater or two at the ready to provide us with some warmth to actually make these very summery tasks possible. Or alternatively, I could just burn down The Shed.

Stupid bloody seasons.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

You see, this is one of the chief reasons that I loathe Summer and all who sail in her so much! If we do burn down the shed it'll just make things hotter!

Of course, with the current weather, that wouldn't be such a terrible thing.

Also...

BOXMAS MOTHERFUCKERS. BOXMAS

The Rantolotl said...

Perhaps I need a Boxmas special...

Anonymous said...

I'm not whiny, I do need a bed and I swear that was the biggest fucking catillpillar I have ever seen...

Anonymous said...

I don't believe in Boxmas! Bah humbug!

Although i'm not entirely convinced that it's going to be warm this summer at all. Global warming fucked the seasons and so they make no sense! It'll be 40 in winter though, that's my prediction.

"Biggest fucking catipillar i've ever seen"....somehow it still doesn't seem particularly terrifying. Like seeing a miniture cow.

Anonymous said...

You can't burn down the shed. It's too .... organic.. to burn.