It’s been snowing since yesterday. Curses!! I don’t think I remember seeing snow this early even when I lived in Canada, well maybe except for Calgary, where I distinctly recall throwing snowballs during a freak snowfall on an August visit. But that’s beside the point. Albertans are apparently rednecks, who oppose the Kyoto Protocol, so they deserve that kind of treatment from Mother Nature. But here, in Munich, land of the environmental good guys!! Why???? My only consolation is that I’m getting email from friends back in Ontario who tell me they woke up to snow yesterday too.
Our heat isn’t on yet. I thought this was some kind of thrifty European thing, to sit shivering in the house, wrapped in blankets and warm sweaters. I’ve been grateful for my laptop, which gets very warm on the bottom and serves double-duty as entertainment centre/electronic hot water bottle. Hydro is expensive here, and Germans are very dollar conscious, so I thought that "no heat" translated into "conservation". I mean, the lights in the hallways are on timers. There’s only one washing machine to serve the entire apartment building, and no dryer — everyone hangs clothes to dry. My tiny refridgerator is what North Americans would consider a bar fridge, the hot water in the bathroom and kitchen are on meters, the toilet — well let’s just say there isn’t enough water in it for a goldfish to swim in — and everything (I mean everything) gets recycled. There are more bikes parked outside the building at night than cars. Why would I expect the needless expenditure of nature’s resources for heat? I just assumed…
Well, I assumed wrong. My landlady was dismayed when I tentatively brought the subject up yesterday. Some guy will be here before 6:30PM today to fix the radiators.
Picture taken in the graveyard behind our place — I’m calling it, "The Death of Autumn".
POLLENATRIX 