Living in a Cocoon

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 19:14:16 GMT

I can clearly remember attending an IBM Christmas in 1997 in Brisbane. As this was an IT event in Australia - everyone present was in business attire (long pants, long sleeve shirt, tie and maybe even a suit jacket). As it was Christmas in Brisbane the temperature was in the low 30's (Celsius) and the humidity was high.

As I milled around with the other 100's of attendees I ran into a couple for Arizona. They were complaining bitterly about the heat - which was surprising everyone around - because, heck, they were from Arizona - this should be nothing to them. However they explained that while they lived in Arizona they never went out in the heat. The went from their air conditioned home, to their air conditioned cars, to their air conditioned work place (at this point in time air conditioning was still relatively rare in Brisbane outside of corporate offices and shopping centers).

Now that I am living in Seattle I can understand this entirely. It can be miserably cold and rainy - yet I can get through my whole day without ever actually being exposed to the weather. I can get from my heated home to my heated work in my heated car without ever needing to be directly exposed to rain or cold (except for the 10 second walk from my car to my building - which is usually undercover but still can be very cold). It is an odd experience.

Cheers,
Ben

Mumbling to myself: Random

Living in a Cocoon