And to the weather this year I say, what the $%#$@% ?!?!?!?

Seriously! Record breaking snow falls – multiple storms throwing down more than a foot of snow (yeah, yeah, I know if you’re in Canada, you’re thinking – so what? My senior year in college, Boston broke it’s snow fall record at 90 something inches and my parents laughed because they’d live in Ottawa when they broke their snow fall record at something like 170 that year (long enough ago that I wasn’t born yet and Canada hadn’t fully switched to metric!. But this is Virginia! We don’t do blizzards!). Kids will probably be in school until July – unless schools have to close for the heat because at this point it looks like it may be 127! It’s currently April and we’re already having highs in the 90s!

Now I don’t mean to be so picky. I know I complained about the cold in the winter and here I am already complaining about the heat (this may have something to do with the fact that our AC doesn’t seem to be working and after running all night last week it was still 75 downstairs (and warmer upstairs) – even though the outside temperature had dropped to the 50’s overnight! We didn’t open the windows because everyone’s allergies have been bothering them and we didn’t want all the pollen exposure all night.). It’s just that – well it would have been nice to have just A LITTLE touch of spring in there. You know – more than a weekend of it.

My Mom was here last week (coming back this weekend for another stopover) and when we were driving on Sunday, she noted that some convertibles had their tops down (it was probably in the low 80s). I said – well, it is convertible weather! Then she said what she always says on this topic – the problem with convertibles is in the summer it’s too hot to have the top down, so they have such a limited season. I tried suggesting that if you’re “moving” on a highway, you can have the top down in the summer and the breeze keeps it reasonable. (Keep in mind that on a trip to San Francisco in February or March several years ago, I was not above putting down the top in the freezing cold and just driving with the heat blasting because heck, the sun was out and it was a pretty day and I was sick of winter!) She said it would be too hot if stuck in traffic. But then again, she’s more the type to be worried about her hair getting blown (even with the windows down) and I’m more the type to have forgotten to dry/style/ maybe brush my hair this morning anyway (I wish I could blame this characteristic on the baby, but such a defamation would be a total lie.).

So I made the argument that convertibles work out well in DC because we have these longer shoulder seasons – a nice long spring and fall when you can use them. I can remember recent years where I was still wearing a sweatshirt in June (sadly at the beach) because it just wasn’t warming up here yet. (Note – this is still entirely a possibility here given DC weather. I mean – since it was 90 last week, it could be snowing next week. That would be followed by a monsoon and then a drought…) Anyway, I’d probably just about finished my argument on our long spring when God started laughing at me and it hit 90. And we discovered our AC problems (when you add this to the plumbing, electrical, bug and dry wall issues we’ve thus far had with the house, I am AGAIN praising God for the home warranty. It’s the only thing that keeps me from cursing the sellers…).

As a side note, I wrote this last week, but didn't get to publish. Following writing this, the temperature dropped again. Now it was beautiful in the day - highs in the 60's and 70's, but cold at night (lows in the 40's). This would generally be fine except that the AC problems seem to mean that our heat now won't work either! (When the repair guy came he explained something about leaks and issues and how they're linked and took the fuse... I don't know - I wasn't actually there for this discussion.) The point is the other morning it was 59 in my house (and 40 something outside).

I know, I know - I totally complained that it was 75 in my house the other day and wouldn't cool off and now I'm complaining about the cold. But SERIOUSLY!

Rather than continue to talk about the weather (how long have I been talkign about it now?! ;)), where do you stand on the convertible issue? Would you want one (ok, if you’re worried about kids – how about a Volvo convertible with roll bars?)? Or are you with my Mom that they have such limited use and/or you don’t want your hair blown? (Note – if by some miracle it’s the one day this month that I’ve actually bothered to do something with my hair, I probably want the top up too. But what are the chances of that?)