h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Coldest I've ever been: several months ago, there was what I'll call for lack of a better word, a "blizzard." The driver and I were two miles away from our destination. The car broke down. So, donning this person's jacket as a hood, scarf, and view-obscurer, I was elected to head on the path to describe our recent demise. It was cold....

Hottest I've ever been: 4 hours from now, I begin marching in the first of three 4th Of July parades. I will get sunburned, even with all of the sunscreen that I have already put on. I will get dehydrated, even if I drink twelve glasses of water right now. I will feel sick before the day is over. Wish me luck.

*Heads out to the Veranda, and shoots one of his Sario Rip firecrackers into the sky, where it hangs as a lovely shade of purple*

There's one for the road....grumble, mumble, grumble....I hate marching trips...."get here by 6 AM", they said, "gotta leave by 6:30", they said. What I wouldn't give for a nice, long deluge....

*departs*

Affy, for what it's worth, my partner Moira and I attempt to prevent boredom on long walks in the heat in two ways: do the the military marching thing, a line each (Me: "This here march is pretty dumb" Moira: "My poor feet are turning numb"), or by thinking up haikus (at the risk of teaching everyone egg-sucking, a Japanese poetic form of three lines, the first line containing five syllables, the second seven and the third five again). Having failed to find the beach we were looking for after a long walk through the hills, I came up with: "Dificult journeys / should have a destination / or they have no point." I guess you had to be there. Anyway, it kept us sane.

Munchkin, I've had hay fever all my life too. In a stupendously inept career move, I became a gardener one summer. I spent an afternoon mowing an embankment with a Flymo on a rope. There was so much dust and pollen that I could hardly breathe or see for my streaming eyes and stuffed up nose. Finally, and don't read inside the brackets if you're squeamish, [my eyes had watered so much that one of my tear ducts ran dry. Without anything to coat my eyeball, my eyelid suck to it like clingfilm to an apple. It took an awful lot of eyedrops to fix that].

Amy, sorry to hear about the motor. Mine's now at the point where if a garage wants a large bill before they'll give it back I just tell them to keep it...

*Comes in, zonked-out, and falls into a sofa.*

Whew, my first full day at college (uh, sort of - it was only Taster Day but was still long enough) and I'm sweltering! Waiting for that bus is terrible!

I cool glass of peach icetea please, Matina.

Happy Independance Day to all you USA-ans over there.
BBC Radio 2 is calling today 'America Day'!

They've got some interesting programs on american music as well. Shame I'll be going to the pool to play with my drysuit or I'd listen,

Why don't they call it "The day we maybe should have read that darned declaration"?

I don't think Affy will be writting any songs or making up haikus, not with the person next to him, anyway. He's marching in a parade with his school band. Hard to talk when you've got an instrument in your mouth (if he's a percussionist, it's hard to talk while the guy next to you is beating a big bass drum).

I prefer Cinqo de Mayo (Fifth of May), though I'm not sure what event exactly it celebrates. I know it's the Mexican Independance Day.

[G7]

*enjoying her first day off in far too long... and hoping everyone else's days are going as well*

Well the day went mostly well. I did have to carry on with a ticket we've got with a telco -they haven't got a clue what's going on and I'm not that bothered either because I finish in this job tomorrow .

Cinqo de Mayo commemorates the independence of Mexico from Spain (see, any country with an active and violent inquisition, I'm all over it!). The French just revolted internally...which may be why it is harder to get a good grasp on.
All I know is, it is supposed to hit 100 Farenheit (sorry, can't do the math well...anyone help!), and it is only noon, and it is already about 80. We are talking HOT. Of course, this makes the drinking of great quantities of liquid imperative....

allright, bye all, i'm off for a week of vacation!!!!

*waves*

Oh, do have fun now won't you, Sea?

Work on a holiday sucks. OP let us know how the new job shakes out next week .

There's a couple of weeks till I get that joy Marv

It was 116 Farenheit here yesterday. Who was complaining about 100?

I was and I still am... The AC here at my office is out for the week. One of the monster units on the roof died Monday.

I plan to die on a Tuesday. Thay way I won't mess-up anyones weekend.

*floating in*



Wow! Quite some response about extreme experiences and pain! I once attended a course 'become a better speaker' sort of... and at one point we were to lecture about a 'moment I'll never forget' - and most chose pain... and the commitment was astonishing!!!

Forgot to mention I've got two white spots on my cheeks... after a walk in -25 C, with a strong wind, pulling my scarf up to my nose (but not over my nose, can't breathe through a scarf) and pulling my cap down to my glasses, and the area between cap and scarf froze...

...when we got indoors, my brother remarked on the white spots - I looked into a mirror and yes - white as paper! - touching my cheeks I discovered the humidity in my breath had frozen to ice on my skin...

...'don't rub, don't rub' was an advice I remembered, so I thought I'd try to warm my face up slowly - wet a towel with luke warm (or so my hands thought) water - and almost scalded myself!

Tried cool water, and then cold water - and that felt like warmth to my cheeks!

Gradually warming up, I had a look in the mirror again - arghhhh!!!

I had, despite trying to be careful, completely crushed the fine veins under my skin - I had two large spots that looked as if they were open bleeding wounds - if it hadn't been for the fact that they were covered by a thin surface of skin...

...after a couple of days, the skin started to peel off - worse than your worst sunburn, I promise! A lot of skin died there...

...and today, that area of my face looks paler than the rest of it... and it doesn't tan as easily either...

Ooh, you have my sympathy, Titania! Sounds nasty!

I think that any scar tissue will react different that other skin. I have scars that will not tan, I have others that tan more than the surrounding skin. The burn mark on my forearm is darker than the rest.

Hmmmm.... interesting.... the most recent of my scars (7 years ago) tans much more easily than the scars from my infant years... (many, many years ago) - I wonder why?

*cuddles Springie*

T, I think that you are on to something. I have scars from when I was three that are compleatly white, while others are very dar, but the darker ones are more recent.