Windows are shutting down
Nov. 16th, 2006 07:59 amThat just sounds wrong, but it's the Microsoftian corruption of it -

-which is the real grammatical abomination. But then, what do you expect from a company which, for over a decade, has trained us to turn off our computers by pushing the "start" button?
However expressed, though, it's true: November has just turned the corner into the second half of the month, and probably later today, the last of our window screens will slide up, a storm window will guillotine into position in each of the remaining frames, and our windows will indeed be shut down, until probably April.
We're lucky to have had warm days this late into the month. I was debating with a neighbor the other day if this relative balminess counts as Indian Summer, a quasi-weather concept tied to warmth after a first hard frost. I suppose getting two feet of snow in October counts as a first hard frost, but it still seems off, somehow.
When it is warm enough in November to have open windows around here, there's no question which way the wind is blowing. Definitely, defiantly at times, it's from the south. This office has a southern exposure, and the 290 is about six house-lengths from the back yard behind it, so when it is window-open warm, the highway sounds are amplified and dopplerized a bit by that wind, and it sounds like you have a NASCAR race outside your window, only with trucks. (Now THAT would be an interesting sport, especially for people who watch mainly to see the good accidents.)
I'll be on the road today, my only time this week and perhaps the last time before Thanksgiving. The week after will bring at least one extended voyage, and that's when we can really start to count on the weather getting interesting around here.

-which is the real grammatical abomination. But then, what do you expect from a company which, for over a decade, has trained us to turn off our computers by pushing the "start" button?
However expressed, though, it's true: November has just turned the corner into the second half of the month, and probably later today, the last of our window screens will slide up, a storm window will guillotine into position in each of the remaining frames, and our windows will indeed be shut down, until probably April.
We're lucky to have had warm days this late into the month. I was debating with a neighbor the other day if this relative balminess counts as Indian Summer, a quasi-weather concept tied to warmth after a first hard frost. I suppose getting two feet of snow in October counts as a first hard frost, but it still seems off, somehow.
When it is warm enough in November to have open windows around here, there's no question which way the wind is blowing. Definitely, defiantly at times, it's from the south. This office has a southern exposure, and the 290 is about six house-lengths from the back yard behind it, so when it is window-open warm, the highway sounds are amplified and dopplerized a bit by that wind, and it sounds like you have a NASCAR race outside your window, only with trucks. (Now THAT would be an interesting sport, especially for people who watch mainly to see the good accidents.)
I'll be on the road today, my only time this week and perhaps the last time before Thanksgiving. The week after will bring at least one extended voyage, and that's when we can really start to count on the weather getting interesting around here.