{"id":1657,"date":"2020-10-20T12:53:07","date_gmt":"2020-10-20T17:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/wordpress\/autisticme\/?p=1657"},"modified":"2023-11-26T16:28:03","modified_gmt":"2023-11-26T22:28:03","slug":"podcast-episode-044-no-snow-no-gloom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/2020\/10\/20\/podcast-episode-044-no-snow-no-gloom\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast Episode 044 &#8211; No Snow, No Gloom"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Podcast 044; Season 4, Episode 8; October 20, 2020<\/em><\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve lived in four states. Now, in Central\u00a0Texas, we\u2019re home. Central California was the fire and brimstone Hell.\u00a0Minneapolis was the frozen Nordic Hell. Pittsburgh? The drivers are from Hell.<br \/>\nHere outside Austin, we\u2019re enjoying good weather\u2026 and not driving.<\/p>\n\n<!-- iframe plugin v.6.0 wordpress.org\/plugins\/iframe\/ -->\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" 0 1=\"\/&gt;\" src=\"\/\/html5-player.libsyn.com\/embed\/episode\/id\/16527182\/height\/90\/theme\/custom\/thumbnail\/yes\/direction\/backward\/render-playlist\/no\/custom-color\/336699\/\" height=\"90\" width=\"100%\" scrolling=\"no\" 2=\"allowfullscreen\" 3=\"webkitallowfullscreen\" 4=\"mozallowfullscreen\" 5=\"oallowfullscreen\" 6=\"msallowfullscreen\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\n\n<h3><b>No Snow, No Gloom<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>Welcome to <b><i>The Autistic Me\u00a0Podcast<\/i><\/b>. I am Christopher Scott Wyatt, speaking as The Autistic Me.<\/p>\n<p>My sensory issues make dealing with\u00a0weather a challenge. I\u2019ve written about weather and sensory overload often on\u00a0The Autistic Me blog.<\/p>\n<p>Right now, we\u2019re in that odd transition\u00a0month from summer to fall in the Austin area. In a week or two, people will\u00a0switch from wearing shorts to jeans. Or to shorts and sweatshirts.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m really glad we moved here, and\u00a0so are the girls. It\u2019s nice enough to be outside most of the year. Summer mornings\u00a0are wonderful outside and winter afternoons are nice, too. Even the rain is<br \/>\noften a pleasant, gentle rain.<\/p>\n<p>If you have enough money, weather\u00a0probably doesn\u2019t matter as much. You can heat or cool your house and not worry\u00a0about the cost. You can buy expensive winter clothing. Money lets you buy the\u00a0climate you want.<\/p>\n<p>We were fortunate enough to be able\u00a0to move to Texas. It lacks the harsh winters and boiling summers I disliked everywhere\u00a0else.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s been in the 90s here in Central\u00a0Texas. That sounds hotter than it is. There\u2019s often a nice breeze and sunny\u00a0skies. The mornings are cool enough to do yard work or take a walk.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, six inches of snow fell\u00a0in Minneapolis to start the week and it was dark and gloomy back in<br \/>\nPennsylvania.<\/p>\n<p>I happen to love 50 to 70-degree\u00a0weather. The overcast skies in Western PA reminded me of California\u2019s Central\u00a0Coast. I could wear jeans and polo shirts in the fall and be perfectly\u00a0comfortable. I was usually one of the last people to switch from shorts to jeans,\u00a0waiting until the daily high temperatures were in the 40s.<\/p>\n<p>What I don\u2019t like is having to layer\u00a0clothes for cold mornings and warm, humid afternoons. In Pennsylvania you might\u00a0also start with a warm morning and then need layers later in the day. I\u2019d leave<br \/>\na jacket and gloves in the SUV from the end of summer to the start of spring\u00a0for the unpredictable weather.<\/p>\n<p>I hate jackets, gloves, and hats.\u00a0But, you had to have them on hand by the middle of October. Anything could\u00a0happen.<\/p>\n<p>The change of seasons in Western PA\u00a0is a rollercoaster of temperatures hidden by dense morning fog and clouds. Despite\u00a0one day this week with a high near 80, just so residents don&#8217;t forget the joys\u00a0of hot humidity, the next 10 days in Pittsburgh are mostly cloudy and under 60.<\/p>\n<p>At first, I was thrilled with the cloud\u00a0cover. I\u2019m extremely photosensitive and wear sunglasses even inside some rooms.\u00a0It was nice not to have headaches from sunshine. Transition glasses were sufficiently<br \/>\ndark for a few minutes outside.<\/p>\n<p>Eventually the gloom gets to\u00a0everyone I met in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n<p>Pittsburgh is gloomy. There\u2019s no\u00a0other word for it. It\u2019s been rated as one of the five gloomiest cities in the<br \/>\nnation for good reason. I had to look up what the difference was between partly\u00a0cloudy and partly sunny. Turns out, it is 3\/8 vs. 5\/8 cloud cover for the\u00a0majority of daylight hours, according to several sources. Is it more or less\u00a0than half of the sky for most of the day?<\/p>\n<p>Whatever. It\u2019s cloudy. It\u2019s dark. It\u2019s\u00a0depressing after a few weeks. It\u2019s not a few puffy white clouds in a blue sky.\u00a0The sky teases you with hints of blue, right before the sun vanishes. Over a\u00a0year, Pittsburgh has 203 mostly-cloudy days. It competes with Seattle for\u00a0cloudiest region in the nation.<\/p>\n<p>Most years, Seattle and Portland\u00a0edge out Pittsburgh with an additional two weeks of cloudy skies.<\/p>\n<p>However\u2026 if you count those partly-sunny\u00a0days? Then Pittsburgh has 306 days with cloud cover. Yes, more than 300 gloomy\u00a0days.<\/p>\n<p>People buy sunlamps and tanning beds<br \/>\nin Pennsylvania. I get it. You might move there without Seasonal Affective<br \/>\nDisorder\u2026 you\u2019ll get it after a couple of winters.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, where we lived in Pennsylvania<br \/>\nhad better weather than the Twin Cities or our native Central California. I could<br \/>\nlive and work in Pennsylvania. We would have remained there with the right job.<\/p>\n<p>There are seasons in Pennsylvania. They<br \/>\njust all include clouds.<\/p>\n<p>Winter was the only season I really<br \/>\ndisliked in PA. Thankfully, it was only a few months long.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, it snows in Western PA and the<br \/>\nsnow accumulates. Just as you reach that sick and tired of winter stage, the<br \/>\nsnow melts and bulbs begin to bloom.<\/p>\n<p>Western PA is lush and green. Even<br \/>\nthe suburbs feature dense foliage and flowers everywhere. I loved spring and<br \/>\nfall in Pennsylvania. Summer wasn\u2019t even bad. You could work in the flower beds<br \/>\nmost of the year.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019d spend winter waiting for those<br \/>\nbeautiful springs.<\/p>\n<p>Winters in Pennsylvania were<br \/>\nstressful and exhausting.<\/p>\n<p>Driving in snow and ice in Pittsburgh<br \/>\nand the surrounding region is incredibly dangerous. There are a lot of YouTube<br \/>\nvideos featuring cars and trucks sliding down the city\u2019s steep streets. The hills<br \/>\nand sharp turns lead cars into ravines and barriers.<\/p>\n<p>Commuting to or from the<br \/>\nuniversities, I\u2019d sometimes count the accidents along the way. There were days<br \/>\nwith more than 100 accidents on the roads. Driving to campus left me tense for<br \/>\nhours.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s only so much you can do to<br \/>\navoid sliding on ice.<\/p>\n<p>I managed to slide down a parking<br \/>\ngarage ramp, damaging the front of our Jeep. That poor Jeep endured ice-related<br \/>\naccidents with my wife driving and with me driving in two different states. She<br \/>\nhit black ice on a Minneapolis freeway, with the back bumper striking the barrier.<\/p>\n<p>My wife has observed that we\u2019ve lived<br \/>\nin both versions of Hell: the Christian version with fire and brimstone and the<br \/>\nNordic or Asian hells with caves of ice.<\/p>\n<p>The Twin Cities was the frozen<br \/>\nversion of Hell. Returning to the Twin Cities would be difficult for me. We<br \/>\nonly considered a return to the Land of Frozen Lakes because my wife works for<br \/>\na company based in a Minneapolis suburb.<\/p>\n<p>It has snowed on August 31 in<br \/>\nMinneapolis. You heard me correctly. August 31. And it has snowed as late as<br \/>\nJune 4. Sure, those are the extremes, you\u2019re thinking. It can\u2019t really be<br \/>\nwinter from September through May.<\/p>\n<p>Oh, yes it can be winter for nine<br \/>\nmonths, though \u201conly\u201d six or seven months have measurable snowfall. You might<br \/>\nnot have a day above freezing in December, January, or February.<\/p>\n<p>Imagine 60 to 70 days below<br \/>\nfreezing, as the high temperature. There can be two weeks below zero. Two weeks<br \/>\nwith negative temperatures. And that\u2019s not factoring in the windchill. They\u2019ve<br \/>\nrecorded negative temperatures in March.<\/p>\n<p>Nothing can prepare you for extreme<br \/>\ncold.<\/p>\n<p>Clothing triggers my sensory<br \/>\noverload. You need clothing, and lots of it, in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n<p>You need gloves. Ideally, gloves<br \/>\nwith two layers so you can remove the insulated outer shell when you need to<br \/>\nuse fingers. You certainly don\u2019t want bare fingers. Your skin will crack and bleed<br \/>\nwithout oily gels and lotions, even under gloves.<\/p>\n<p>Absolutely cover your ears, too. Hats,<br \/>\nscarves, and earmuffs. I\u2019d see people with all three on the train. One person,<br \/>\nnot three people. One person with all three. You just cannot take chances with<br \/>\nears, which are thin and freeze quickly.<\/p>\n<p>My ears, cheeks, and nose would burn<br \/>\nin the cold winds of the Twin Cities. It\u2019s an indescribable pain. Sharp, like<br \/>\nrazor blades or paper cuts across your skin. No\u2026 Paper cuts hurt less than cold<br \/>\nwind. With any ice in the air? That wind would leave your face a burning red<br \/>\ncolor. It\u2019s not mere wind burn like from riding a motorcycle in cool weather.<br \/>\nNo, this feels like a serious burn.<\/p>\n<p>And everyone who follows The<br \/>\nAutistic Me blog knows there were broken bones. I slipped in Pennsylvania, too,<br \/>\non the ice, but not nearly as often as in Minneapolis. Crosswalks? The paint<br \/>\n(hidden by snow) becomes slick and dangerous. Stairs? The old stone and<br \/>\nconcrete stairs of the university were like climbing blocks of ice.<\/p>\n<p>I had to use my cane. After cracking<br \/>\nor breaking bones, I had to use crutches a couple of times.<\/p>\n<p>My eyes were damaged forever by the<br \/>\ncold at a bus stop. The vision still upsets me, because it might not have<br \/>\nhappened if I hadn\u2019t lived in Minnesota. The cold, dry air just ruins your<br \/>\nexposed skin and eyes.<\/p>\n<p>The dirty snow was disgusting. It bothered<br \/>\nme more than dust and dirt normally do. Dirty snow is frozen mud.<\/p>\n<p>Winter made public transit<br \/>\nunbearable, but necessary. People sweating under layers of clothing stink.<br \/>\nEveryone smells. I hated my own smell. Mud and stench, plus screeching train<br \/>\nbrakes. I couldn\u2019t bear the input some days. I\u2019d quit trying to do anything.<\/p>\n<p>Since I sweat all the time, I\u2019d ruin<br \/>\ndress shirts in the winter. The shirts would discolor, looking like a creepy tie-dyed<br \/>\npattern around the collars, back, and under the arms.<\/p>\n<p>Malls survive in Minnesota because<br \/>\nyou need indoor spaces for walking and getting out of the house.<\/p>\n<p>I posted a lot of rants on The<br \/>\nAutistic Me about the cold in the Twin Cities because every year was a new injury<br \/>\nand more pain. Winter after miserable winter, I dreamed that pursuing the doctorate<br \/>\nwould take us somewhere better.<\/p>\n<p>It was often sunny between storms.<br \/>\nIt\u2019s a painfully bright sunshine that reflects off the snow and puddles. Still,<br \/>\nthe sun brought hope that snow might melt. Except nothing melts below freezing.<\/p>\n<p>Why did I decide to attend the<br \/>\nUniversity of Minnesota?<\/p>\n<p>Because I didn\u2019t understand that<br \/>\ncold is worse than heat. I had never had to shovel snow or wear five layers of<br \/>\nclothing. I had never had my hands bleed from dryness. Who knew that air could<br \/>\nbe so dry it causes cracks and tears in your corneas? Broken bones and a loss<br \/>\nof vision were part of the price of moving from one Hell into another.<\/p>\n<p>Central California was a terrible place<br \/>\nfor me. Sure, I thought, Minneapolis will be much better for my mind and body.<\/p>\n<p>I was wrong. I cannot tolerate<br \/>\nextreme cold or the things necessary to adapt to the cold.<\/p>\n<p>We left California\u2019s San Joaquin<br \/>\nValley because I couldn&#8217;t tolerate the heat. Extreme heat makes me physically ill.<br \/>\nI sweat a lot all year, and extreme heat leads to dehydration no matter how much<br \/>\nI try to stay hydrated. I end up bloated, with difficulty moving.<\/p>\n<p>In 1984, the Central Valley had 63<br \/>\ndays over 100 degrees. It was brutal. In 2005, the year before we moved, there<br \/>\nwere 21 consecutive days of extreme triple-digit summer heat.<\/p>\n<p>When the heat goes on, day after day<br \/>\nafter day, it has other side effects.<\/p>\n<p>Central Valley air quality is<br \/>\nnotoriously bad. The geography creates a bowl \u2014 a 400-mile long, skinny bowl.<br \/>\nThe lower Coastal Range and gaps around the Bay Area allows the winds to push<br \/>\nair pollution up against the much higher Sierra Nevada peaks. Pollution hangs<br \/>\nover the Valley for months.<\/p>\n<p>That wonderful \u201cdry heat\u201d people<br \/>\nbrag about in the Central Valley? It\u2019s why the air quality is so horrible.<\/p>\n<p>In August and September, forest<br \/>\nfires add to the haze. Many of the worst fires are natural, caused by lighting<br \/>\nand dry conditions. The habitats evolved for fires, which some people don\u2019t<br \/>\nunderstand. Fire is part of the lifecycle in the region.<\/p>\n<p>The Central Valley and Los Angeles<br \/>\nhad stagnant, smokey air long before cars existed. The mountains surrounding<br \/>\nLos Angeles create a bowl, too. The La Brea Tar Pits and natural wildfires made<br \/>\nthe Los Angeles Basin hazy when the first people arrived.<\/p>\n<p>For 280 days of the year, the<br \/>\nPacific Inversion holds air stagnant over much of California. In areas with low<br \/>\nhumidity, the ozone hangs in the air. In other states, humidity contributes to<br \/>\nvisible haze. In the Central Valley and Los Angeles Basin, humidity would help<br \/>\nreduce the ozone levels.<\/p>\n<p>November through March is Tule Fog<br \/>\nseason. The Valley goes from extreme heat, through fire season, and into<br \/>\ndangerous dense fog. Having lived in several states, I can attest that what<br \/>\npeople call \u201cdense fog\u201d elsewhere has nothing on the near-zero visibility of Tule<br \/>\nFog.<\/p>\n<p>Traffic accidents become multi-vehicle<br \/>\npile ups on the freeways. You cannot see the lines on the roads, much less<br \/>\nother cars or trucks. People miss stop signs and traffic signals. Tule Fog is<br \/>\ndeadly, which is why \u201cfoggy day schedules\u201d are common for schools.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019d wake up early to listen to local<br \/>\nradio stations for the list of school delays. The standard delay was two hours.<\/p>\n<p>After the fog, you might have three<br \/>\nor four nice weeks. And then the heat returns. By April, 90 degree days return.<br \/>\nYes, according the National Weather Service, the \u201cwarm season\u201d lasts from mid-April<br \/>\nthrough mid-October.<\/p>\n<p>Seven months of miserable heat and<br \/>\nbad air.<\/p>\n<p>In Texas, we have found our final<br \/>\ndestination. The slight humidity means my eyes won\u2019t be ripping again if I forget<br \/>\neye drops. There are only a few days of frozen sleet and light snow. You never<br \/>\nneed to shovel a driveway or sidewalk.<\/p>\n<p>The heat is tolerable, especially<br \/>\nwhen compared to the mix of heat and bad air in Central California.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m content in shorts and a t-shirt,<br \/>\nsitting in the shade with a cold drink.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s good to be home.<\/p>\n<p>I am Christopher Scott Wyatt,<br \/>\nspeaking as The Autistic Me.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you for listening.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Blog: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/\">https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Facebook: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/autisticme\/\">https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/autisticme\/<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Twitter: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/autisticme\">https:\/\/twitter.com\/autisticme<\/a><\/li>\n<li>YouTube: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/CSWyatt\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/CSWyatt<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/autisticme.libsyn.com\/\">https:\/\/autisticme.libsyn.com\/<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Podcast 044; Season 4, Episode 8; October 20, 2020 We\u2019ve lived in four states. Now, in Central\u00a0Texas, we\u2019re home. Central California was the fire and brimstone Hell.\u00a0Minneapolis was the frozen Nordic Hell. Pittsburgh? The drivers are from Hell. Here outside Austin, we\u2019re enjoying good weather\u2026 and not driving. No Snow,&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/2020\/10\/20\/podcast-episode-044-no-snow-no-gloom\/\">Continue Reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Podcast Episode 044 &#8211; No Snow, No Gloom<\/span> <i class=\"fas fa-angle-right\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"iawp_total_views":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,10],"tags":[134,467,468,476,529,548,554,708,764],"class_list":["post-1657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-podcast","tag-central-valley","tag-minneapolis","tag-minnesota","tag-moving","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pittsburgh","tag-podcast","tag-texas","tag-weather","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2023\/11\/Podcast_Banner_800x400.png?fit=711%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfivLC-qJ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1657"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3595,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1657\/revisions\/3595"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}