Fuyuu Athens

Heh, the title is a nod to Somnium-chan's "residence" on MySpace. It means "Winter Athens". Seriously though, people went in and hacked Japan & Anime Party's Profile and deleted it? Leaving aside the fact that a MySpace profile is very easy to create and reestablish (in terms of Friends, Contacts etc.), seriously, don't these people have anything better to do? I mean, people who create viruses for fun and spread them on the net are pretty pathetic but hacking MySpace??? Get a life, go and get laid or have a beer for crying out loud! Anyhow, that is not our subject today but I really had to make this rather obvious and yet to some, incomprehensible point.

No, our subject is the aforementioned "Winter Athens". It's been 3 or more years since we had a snowfall of this magnitude, always judging by the state of my neighborhood. We are not that much up north (somewhere in the middle between downtown and the northern suburbs), though we usually get pretty low temperatures either way, because of a "pooling" effect as it is called in Environmental Physics vernacular. In effect, my neighborhood is flanked on either side by higher-altitude areas, along whose slope the heavier, colder air rolls down and pools, creating a much colder area than its neighbors.

The view from my balcony last night,
without flash.

The actual vista, with flash.

Snow-covered tree, picture taken
last night, without flash.

Same view, this morning.

Snow, at least in Greece, is one of the most controversial phenomena: it is soothing to watch, brings on a sweet melancholy and is very... beneficial for the sexual life of couples who simply MUST cuddle against the cold (ahem). On the other hand, many villages and islands become cut off, we have all-around power failures and many old folks die in their homes. Even in Athens - you would think the capital city of Greece would be better organized - streets become clogged with snow, you can commute only by metro and then only if there hasn't been some malfunction due to the cold. As to the cars, it seems people have this idiotic notion that their car and theirs alone can brave the glassy streets without wheel-chains, resulting in multiple calls to the police and fire departments. Even worse, some lowlife S.O.B.s believe that slippery streets are a chance for speeding up and cutting corners, usually resulting in fatal accidents; oh, they SHOULD die for being such inconsiderate imbeciles but the random pedestrian, squashed under their wheels, is at no fault, don't you think?

Snow-covered Roses...

...at night...

...and during the day.

Bottomline: I love Winter, I love the snow but really, Hell is other people and not the weather. Not to mention that this crazy climate with no real Winter for three years and then suddenly, German temperatures, is just the planet kicking us in the face for being idiots.

Have a nice, snowy evening,

Speedgrapher


P.S. Ergo Proxy is on guard duty up on the mountains and last we talked, the power (and heating) had gone out. Now I cannot reach his cell and I am worried. Hope you're OK man...