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Pages: 1
Summer in da city
(Click here to view the original thread with full colors/images)
Posted by: Shalome
As Laborat so eloquently described, it's summer here in the St. Louis metro area. He's not exaggerating about the buckling of the interstates. Driving to and from work each day has become quite the ordeal. As temperatures get hotter, tempers seem to get shorter, roads get worse, and construction (ah, the ever-present, no-progress-making construction...) slows to a halt -- as does traffic, most days.
This summer has marked my first experience with making a long commute each day -- 45 minutes on a good day, an hour and a half on truly evil days. The mornings aren't so bad; I hit I- 270 just before 7AM, when people are resigned to the fact that they are heading to work and are taking their time about it. People are listening to Howard Stern and drinking coffee, the sun isn't too high in the sky, it's still a bit misty-hazy near the river, and it's a comfortable 75 degrees. Around the major exits, traffic gets a little worse, but you can usually keep your cruise control right at 72 and everything's fine.
Fast-forward 8 hours. All hell breaks loose.
My car (and everyone else's) has been sitting in a large parking lot in the sun all day. Around here, you can't really leave your windows cracked all day because you never know when a freak thunderstorm might hit. The interior of my car is roughly 150 degrees, the air outside is a steamy (and when people from the St. Louis metro area say "steamy," we mean it) 98 degrees. Opening the windows of the car does not help, as the breeze from outside is still hellishly hot. The air is so thick and warm (not to mention the smog and ozone warnings), it is actually hard to breathe. The air conditioner is turned all the way up, and still doesn't cut the heat that radiates into your car. You're wearing business clothes and sweating. Never a comfortable feeling.
People have just gotten off their 8 hour shifts and are trying to make it home, to dinner and loved ones and -- most importantly -- air conditioning. The interstates (which are in horrible condition -- some that are supposed to be 5 or 6 lanes each direction are down to 2 lanes each way) are filling up with hot, tired drivers who desperately want to be finished with their commutes. In this kind of heat, semi trucks tend to blow tires, snarling traffic for miles. People get angry, lose their temper with other drivers, cut each other off, cause major accidents. People drive too quickly on bad roads, lose control, spin into the guardrail. On my commute, I've been counting; there is an average of 5 accidents an afternoon on my route home. This does not include all the blown tires, overheated radiators, and cars that just quit working.
I can't wait to find an apartment outside of the city, on the Illinois side of the river. My commute time will be cut in half, I won't have to deal with the St. Louis traffic... And soon, the weather will get cooler. August and early September are the worst months around here, but hey.. soon it'll be fall and winter, with the snowfall and 15 degree temperatures (on a good day). Oh yeah, and the periodic ice storms too...
And then, we'll all be wishing for those nice, warm, summer days again...
Sorry 'bout the length of this rant. I'm at work and bored.
-Shalome
Posted by: laborat
You may have pegged it better than I did... amen.
Posted by: Null Actor
Too true... summer sucks, and winter sucks. Spring in Vancouver is about the best weather the world can experience... how I miss it. 
Sooner or later I'm going to move back to Vancouver. I miss it so bad some days that it hurts. Overall there the weather isn't much to complain about. You *might* get snow in the winter. It gets a little warm in the summer, but the wind off the water usually clears all the hot air out as soon as the sun goes down. It rains a bit much in fall and winter, but nothing that a pair of hiking boots and an umbrella can't keep at bay.
Spring, is perfect.
Posted by: Gerbilo
I can't complain that much about what shalome is saying, I just get a fraction of it. I'm a couple hundred miles north in Chicago suburbs. Doesn't get as hot, been in the low 90's when it isn't raining or whatnot. My commute isn't that far, 10 miles at 9am. That drive is normally alright, traffic isn't nearly as bad as you have it shalome. The way home can be a little toasty, getting into the car, but it's only around 12:30pm when i am going home so it's not nearly as bad. The air conditioning normally does it's job 
Shalome, just stay outta East St. Louis heheh
Posted by: Chako
Well up here at the crux of Lake Superior, Lake Huron, and Lake Michigan, we are not that comfortable with this summers scorcher. We tend to get nice weather in the 70s and if it is really nice, in the mid to high 80s. Not this summer! The humidex is off the scale, avg temps hovering around mid 90s, and sometimes dipping into the high 90's. Maybe down south, you guys can handle it, but up here...we are a pathetic sight. Ever see cold loving Canucks melting into a puddle of goo. Why, I can't even buy an air conditioner in town...heck..not even in the twin city across the ditch (Michigan). All fans are gone...the only thing left is a folded piece of paper which you need to wave frantically...consuming energy, thereby producing more heat...which equates to sweat...oh yeah....got to love this summer! I promise...I do, yes I do...to not complain about the snow when it comes. Picture in your mind, the neighbors ready to call the loony wagon when they see me in my shorts, sunglasses, and sandals, playing in the snow...making little snow angels...even hugging the snow and saying over and over...I love you...yes I love you......
Posted by: Swilo
Waving that piece of paper actually uses so much energy that the overall gain in cooling is negated and you just wind up hotter. And never use the fridge as an air conditioner.
Posted by: laborat
Dear Chako,
I have had some experience with Northern Climes and the people
who inhabit them...I lived in Boston and one summer it got up to
93...the city literally had to shut down...they couldn't cope with the heat...there were more fire hydrants flooding the streets than there were PHDs in Cambridge. There were Bostonian natives at the Beach!!! well Revere is not really a beach just a MTA stop, but still they were there and a lot of them for the first time. I was amazed since 93 in Missouri is a lot like the weather in JUNE. We have a tendency to have NO Spring and go right to summer. St. Louis is a base ball town. The Weather here is supposed to be Changeable but it also has a tendency to stay the same when it finds the right combination of Hell and High Water. What is really amazing though is that a lot of Texans come north to Missouri for the Summer...Its cooler.
Posted by: LT
... because I don't live in the city.
I'm in the country. Where it is exceedingly dry. So dry that the smallest hint can start a grass fire. Which I did yesterday. It was a very small, teeny tiny hint, but it took the hint for a radius of about 20 feet. Happily we got it put out using only one piece of heavy equipment with a bucket blade and 2 shovels.
The barbecue was very good last night, btw.
Very quiet out here in the sticks. Nothing much happens.
Posted by: AK47
Hell, I like extreme heat. I like going outside, washing the car, and building up a sweat. I dunno, it just feels good to sweat alot. Yeah, that probably sounds sick, but oh well.
to hell with car air conditioning! its horrible- its the work of the devil!
Posted by: Gerbilo
"cause you make your engine run double time" wharhar!
Posted by: Shalome
So I leave the house at 6:50 this morning. Closing the front door, I realize that there is condensation on the door handle, it's so humid already. No big deal. It's cloudy today, will probably rain. I hear on the radio (in between Howard Stern jokes) I hear that the high for today is 94 and the heat/humidity index will reach about 110. "No problem," I think to myself, "At least the sun's not beating down today, and it will probably storm this afternoon and cool things off." By the time I get to work, my air conditioner in the car has been chugging on high for about half an hour. I get out of the car and feel my hair start to droop from the humidity. "No problem," I think to myself, "The air conditioner inside work is always nice and cool."
I get in the building. No. NO! Oh god, NOOOOOO! The air conditioner is broken. I'm sitting in a windowless, airless office with a rotating fan. And no air conditioning.
And major systems have crashed. Phones ringing off the hook. Commanders from different departments demanding to know what's going on. This is hell. Truly hell.
And the fridges are out of all cold drinks. No soda, no bottled water, no fruit juice. Nothing.
I should quit.
-Shalome
Posted by: laborat
Once the day starts going downhill, it doesn't ever seem to stop till it reaches the Grand Canyon.
Posted by: Chako
Yep, and they call it the scenic route.
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