A Vida É Bela

A Frente Fria Chegou (The Cold Front Arrived)

Since the weather is, well, kind of my thing, please indulge me while I talk about it a bit. :)

As I write this, I am huddled under my 4 degree polyfill sleeping bag, wearing: fleece hat, two longsleeve thermal tops, a fleece hoodie, thermal pants, and wool socks.

Winter arrived a couple weeks ago, unexpectedly (well, probably not to good meteorologists). The sky was literally cloudless in the morning when I left the house, in a skirt, sandals, and tank top, and without an umbrella. (Some of the best advice I’ve ever been given came from one of my high school teachers: carry a swimsuit with you wherever you go. It doesn’t take up much space, and you’ll never regret having it. Addendum for the tropics: carry an umbrella. At all times.)

At four p.m. the sky went pitch black (sunset is at 5:30), the temperature dropped about five degrees (Celsius) and it started to pour. For hours. Alcides, who works in the aerosols lab and comes around regularly to bug me about working or not, whichever I’m doing at the moment, announced like a good meteorologist: “The cold front has arrived.”

That’s right, it gets cold in Brazil. Specifically, cold fronts like to wander up from, um, Antartica

Ok, I can hear you Boston and NYC types muttering about what a wimp I am. You’re right, it’s not that cold – and no snow – since I arrived at the end of February the temperature range has dropped from 20-30C (68-86F) to 10-20C (50-68F). Fine. Except that there’s no heating here (and closing my office door and window and waiting for the two servers and two computers to heat things up doesn’t count; neither does holding my MacBook on my lap). So we’re back to “kwitcher bitchin and put on a sweater!” – which does make me feel a lot less sillier about having dragged here a suitcase full of winter camping gear. You know, in case I go camping. In the snow. In Bolivia?.