Looks like snow, but it's raining instead

Woke up this morning, not to a rising sun, so "no thanks" to the trio of birds a reggae musician sings about. It is grey and gloomy out, and even though it looks like snow, Florida hasn't gotten that in decades. 

Rather, it's drizzly out today for being the day of a certain carpenter's birth. 

This is what happens in "the tropics" (as Tay calls America's Wang) - there is no such thing as winter fluff down here, unless you count the sandy beaches as something to compare to (which I don't). 

Gone are the days when I'd dress up in what felt like a million layers, go outside with a beer (and put it in a mound of cold hard white stuff) and start shoveling the driveway. It would be pitch black by 7pm and I'd have nothing better to do during Christmas week, so I'd have myself a party since most vacations I was alone in the house. 

Occasionally, I would simmer homemade chili for dinner (which I made to have over the course of a few days), watch what was coming down from the sky, debate about going out, end up starting a movie and finally getting my stuff together to go into the cold to create clean lines in the driveway. At some point I would need get out with my car. Whether that be to the store, to work, or to just get out of the house for a bit.

And to further the "what am I doing?", there was also a need to internally curse out the city plow guy for pushing everything back onto the edge of the driveway from the street because it was just my luck I'd be out side in the dark long enough, someone would come by and ruin it all.

The other challenge would be if he came by twice while I was out there (because we had an 8 car driveway), thus making me have to push all that street crud to the edge of the yard. 

But here in Fort Myers? No one knows of that icy white stuff that the clouds poop out. Especially if they're one of the "Flogrown" people who have never left their corner of the state. 

The northern Florida people don't count - the ones closest to the Alabama and Georgia lines. 

Although the there is less room for error, the states that touch the Sunshine one, actually get a couple days of snow a year, if they're lucky. I've heard stories about areas in the south getting a some centimeters, but it won't reach the area I'm in. 

Unless you happened to be here "that day in 1977". Something stuck long enough for people to wonder what it was, but it didn't last but a few minutes on the ground. According to Google, an "event" happened again some more times in the 1980s and 1990s, but no one ever talks about that. The aughts brought more "events" to the northern border areas, however, it too didn't last long. 

We are talking about a place in the United States where it's too humid to for cold to last, and it's not in Nevada. Maybe the adage "a snowball's chance in hell" is wrong since snow can't last in this version. 

So... on a spitting water day, I was outside taking pictures. Nothing really to talk about; just a gecko I think is dead (he didn't move once I got him onto the paver block from being stuck inside the lanai screen door), the back "yard", the front street, and the decorations Ed and Joann need to take down next week.

As an aside, while transferring the pictures to my computer, I hooked up a 1994 Sony Speaker System set that seems to be only available on auction sites. I had to get rid of the speakers I've been using on my computer for the past 10 years because they were starting to show their wear (and it didn't help I spilled coffee on the wire about 2 years ago and stupidly never found a replacement. I just kept using it until this morning when I was trying to listen to a podcast on my phone and the audio kept buzzing). 

I haven't used these speakers in so long, I forgot that it has a "bass boost" option. 

(The speaker photos and video were taken with an iPhone 11)

Wow.. it packs a punch. 

It's hard to tell in the video that I switched on the boost, but trust me it's there (around the 11 second mark I made the switch). I promise you I didn't "turn up the volume".

Yes, I used ICP's "Boogie Woogie Wu" (track 11 off The Great Milenko) as a reference point. Don't hate. It was the first thing I pulled up to test the speakers originally and figured I'd replicate it in the video. 

Whatever works, right?

Back to the original part of the story / reason for this long and crazy post:

The photos below were taken on a (now discontinued since there are newer models) Canon EOS Rebel T7i. Shot in Landscape mode and edited in Photoshop for some clarity and my name. 

The clouds look like they're fine. I know. I wish I had a better way to show off the feeling / thought of  "where's the beef snow?" but this is all I have since it was drizzling out and I didn't want my camera getting damaged. 

With my bedroom window wide open, it's so weird to look out and see water and not frozen water falling from the sky. It smells like a fall day, looks like the middle of January, and feels like something between. What a way to go through seasons! 

As we go trudge through the rest of the current one, have yourself a merry day off if you got it. If you're working, hopefully it goes smoothly. I've got off, but also have Friday as a half day. So three full days of office shenanigans and then four hours to round out the year. 

I hope everyone enjoys this moment in time and the world can calm down for a second so people can breathe. 

Until the next post... take care of yourself. 

Cheers;

*See also:

- Bob Marley's Three Little Birds (track 09 off Exodus)

- "Sony Speaker System" keyword search on Amazon (SRS PC30 doesn't exist from Amazon anymore) 

- If you liked any of these photos (or others I have taken), please show some support. Create a comment, Buy me a coffee, let me know what's going on. Support is appreciated.