It IS Getting Colder in Cleveland

It's a yearly thing. Cleveland is heavily affected by the winds traveling from the Arctic, through Canada, across the Great Lakes, and hitting Cleveland with LOTS of snow. See the map below to get a sense of how the latitudes of Europe and the Mediterranean are comparable to the USA.

As you can see, the area of Northern Ohio is approximately in the Balkan region (that region has some brutal winters, in part due to latitude, but also because it's a generally mountainous region).

And, having lived for over 15 years in SC - part of that in the steamy, swampy region known as the Low Country, I'm feeling the cold this year. I'm trying to keep from setting the thermostat higher, given the issue of fuel prices.

So, this morning, I had been planning to switch from my nighttime Fabletics pants (VERY comfortable for sleeping in), and said, "Hey. Why don't I just put on a pair of pants OVER them?"

So I did. And, am toasty warm.

And, drinking my coffee.

I noted that Trump got one of the lawsuits against him dropped. He's hanging tough on the rest, at present.

It's clear that the Left, and the Deep State, just doesn't understand him. They use their usual tactics of lawfare and intimidation, and are astonished - and teeth-grindingly mad - when he doesn't quickly fold.

Guys.

He's BEEN sued before. He's BEEN dragged into court. He is not afraid of the publicity, nor of the cost (when you take as many risks as he does legally, you budget for legal costs as a matter of normal overhead).

He's stubborn. Not ridiculously so, as he has pivoted, when necessary. But, when he digs his heels in, he does not give up when pressure is applied.

Notice that he doesn't generally comment on the ongoing cases, other than to assert that the charges/suits are baseless, and he will win in the end. But, he's very vague on what he says (that's probably something his lawyers drilled into him).

Trump is a guy who can prioritize. Focus on the essential things, and ignore the rest, after he turned them over to his lawyers or delegates.

It's a mode of functioning in a chaotic situation that works for him. Generally.

Bullying in school is a massive problem. It always was there, but the last 20 years or so have ratcheted it up to the size of a galaxy. This story, about an autistic student whose torture by other kids was ignored by staff and teachers, is heartbreaking. After her parents had tried to alert the school to the extent of the problem, and getting no resolution, the 10-year old girl resorted to suicide.

This is why alternatives to government schools have to be available - private, charter, and virtual/homeschooling options. Only after the schools face the consequences of pandering to influential families, and sweeping the CRIMES of their children under the rug, will this stop.

I had no idea that this was "A Thing". I'm a curly-haired girl - it's more wavy than curly, now, but as a kid, my hair was very fine, curly, and snarled in the morning. It took some gentle care to untangle it, and get ready for school.

Yes, my hair did look like that. The color, too.

It's not just a 'Black Girl Thing'. Kinky hair is relatively common in Irish families, too. And, with the increasing prevalence of mixed-race families, it's an issue that hits across cultural lines.

Here is an interesting article about the difficulties of reducing pollution and energy use in the fashion industry. It looks at the potential for new technologies, some relatively quick fixes, and the way the industry works that makes a lot of that reduction a pie-in-the-sky dream. (My Bolding)

In the short term, polyester made from recycled water bottles does have a lower carbon footprint. But once it's made into fashion, it can never be recycled again—the next stop for such apparel is the trash. Less than 1 percent of all clothing is currently recycled into new clothing. And nobody has actually done the calculations to confirm whether recycling polyester into polyester would lower our emissions—it’s a pretty energy-intensive process.

 The thing is, the most common part of today's clothing is that it involves MIXED fibers - linen, wool, cotton, plus the addition of polyesters, lycra, and spandex to make the clothing more comfortable, keep the shrinkage down, and make a smoother fit. The stretchiness of the fiber mixes means that wear on the seams and stress points is less. These manufactured fibers just wear better than the natural ones.

I remember, years ago, reading an article about those new fibers, and how they affected the wear of many items - in that case, bedsheets. At one time, you could only get so many uses out of sheets - the laundering process wore down cotton fibers to the point that the sheets had to be thrown away, or at least, made into rags, within a year or two, depending on the quality of the original sheets.

Today's fibers have superior durability - I have sheets from the 1980s that are still in good shape - that's 40 years of use. And, as frequent washing has less effect on longevity, we can launder more often, and have a fresher and less bacteria-laden home environment. Now, that's a game changer.

When I was a kid, charities would collect clothing for poor people in other countries. The collection drives were always accompanied by pitiful pictures of people in rags.

Not today. Poor people the world over have clothing that is indistinguishable from that of the more industrialized countries. OK, in some cases, with less ability to wash clothes, maybe a little more soiled, but without holes.

Also, mixed fibers are important to the ability of moisture to be 'wicked', or moved away from the body to the surface of the clothing. Colors are brighter, and less vulnerable to fading. The clothing wrinkles less, and can generally be worn without ironing.

These features are what make today's clothing a completely different experience from yesterday's single-fiber-type apparel.

One thing that might reduce clothing purchases is finding ways to help people get their weight gains under control - a common reason for buying new clothes is that the old ones, while in good shape, don't fit.

UPDATE: It's late afternoon - 4:19 EST - in Lorain, OH, and I just woke from a short nap. I'd headed to bed, because my morning was so full:

• Church this morning at St. Mary's on the Lake
• Followed by a fruitless search for some inexpensive rock salt. You can get pricier magnesium chloride, in smaller containers, but no 50# bags of old-fashioned sodium chloride. Not nowhere, not no how.
• I did manage to find a nice pair of snow boots, for a decent price. But, no driving gloves. The gloves I brought with me are not suitable for that purpose.
• No 'winter underwear' - that would be thin undergarments - tank tops, camisoles, or tiny tees, meant to provide extra layers to keep you warm when - not IF = the cold drops into the teens or below.
• Driving home in honest-to-goodness snow. No, it didn't stick, but the sloppy, wet snow made driving a bit of a challenge. At one point, I had to brake, and had a moment of panic, when the car skidded forward. Fortunately, the ABS - anti-lock braking system - kicked in, and I avoided disaster.

All that drama and running around left me exhausted.