Frosty Days, Icy Nights

This is the coldest night of the year, the coldest night in many years in fact. According to the weather forecast plug-in in my Firefox browser and the indoor/outdoor thermometer, we minus 13 degrees Celsius outside. Here in North Germany, minus 8 to minus 10 is usually the coldest we get in winter.

They’re saying that this is the worst of it and that it will get warmer in the next few days. Which would be a good thing, because in this constant frost it’s not even possible to cut the Christmas tree down. Even getting the snow from the branches will be a challenge.

Due to the persistent snow and frost, there was no school today. I had to go shopping though, get certain ingredients for the Christmas meals. So I drove to Roland Center, the oldest of the local malls. The parking lot was completely overcrowded, though the mall itself was full, but not overly so. I suspect that the majority of the cars in the parking lot belonged to people who didn’t even shop at the mall but took the tram into the city center instead. This behaviour is actually encouraged, since it reduces the traffic in the city center. But if shoppers have problems finding a place to park, because people who don’t even shop at the center take up all available parking spaces, things have really gotten out of hand.

At least I got lucky and found a pair of decent winter boots in my size after all. Though it seems that I’m up to size 41 now, at least for boots. This is a problem, because women’s shoes often top out at size 40. 37 and 38 seem to be the most common women’s sizes. I outgrew both at around 18 or so. I really wish there weren’t so many small people or at least that the fashion industry wasn’t catering to their needs so much. Even worse is that small people constantly whine about not being able to find clothing that fits, even though there is a lot more fashion catering to small than to tall people. And “large sizes” usually means for overweight people.

Finally, here are two links:

Here’s Damien G. Walter on truth, beauty and SF.

Seems that there’s something in the air, because Kenneth Mark Hoover also has a post on truth in fiction at the Apex blog (found via Charles Tan).

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5 Responses to Frosty Days, Icy Nights

  1. Estara says:

    I agree with you on the sizing with the caveat that fashion caters to small, thin people. Try and get outfits for overweight people that are nice, and you’re looking at Walküren-wannabes with flowing panels, etc. Not something I can wear.

    I wanted to direct you to http://www.comfortschuh.de though, as they have no problem sending out test orders on Rechnung (and taking back the shoes that you didn’t like – also you don’t have to pay for sending them back), are good quality and come in slim feet and wide feet – and most of their women’s shoes go up to 42 and some to 43. I’m a 38 with wide and flat feet and have been buying stuff from them since last year (I actually occasionally fit into their “normal” width, because the form of the shoe is anatomically correct).

    I have found Bär(Baer?) Schuhe too wide, but I never tried their Colani line.

  2. Cora says:

    The clothing size issue has gotten a lot worse in the past ten years or so. It’s as if the clothing sizes have all moved one or two downwards, i.e. what used to be 38 is now 40, what used to be 40 is now 42 and so on. I’ve gained weight since I was twenty – who hasn’t? – but it seems as if I’ve gone straight from “everything is too big for me” to “everything is too small for me” with nothing inbetween. And I don’t want to wear the glorified potato sacks that pass for “fashion in large sizes” these days.

    Thanks for the hint regarding the shoes. I’ll check it out.

  3. Pingback: A Cold Day on the Town | Cora Buhlert

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