fredericks

see, i thought the weather was "mildish" too before i lived in portland. then i realized that even though it rarely gets down to freezing temperatures, it's so damp all through fall, winter, and spring that the cold seeps right into your bones and doesn't leave until summer. your towels never dry, and this gross pink mold grows on everything in the bathroom. none of the older houses have any insulation, so it's difficult and ridiculously expensive to properly heat any rooms. thus, most people i know hardly ever turned on their heat. on the very rare occasions when there is snow (and two winters in a row when i lived there, we had ice storms), the entire city shuts down.

i ended up just enduring through bone-chilling dampness for four years in a row. it's like i didn't get properly warm until i moved to minnesota, one of the coldest places in the US in the wintertime—but it's a dry cold. AND people turn on their heat there. XD

that said, portland is still the most beautiful place i've ever lived. wintertime there is SO GREEN. and the summer weather, at least, is absolute perfection.