A Matter of Degrees... Perception or Reality on MLK Day

Everything is a matter of perception and everything is a matter of degrees.

Occurs to me when talking about the upcoming Super Bowl that most people seem to think Baltimore is further south than San Francisco, when in fact San Francisco is further south than Baltimore. Many people when asked will tell you they are about at the same latitude.

Oddly, San Francisco which is in NORTHERN California is further south than Baltimore which is thought of as Down South" by many Yankees.

For that matter... the South of France is further north than BOTH San Francisco and Baltimore.... go figure...

We picture bathing beauties lying on the beach in St. Tropez and the land of the sun as a warm, southern destination and it is indeed the "South" if you are visiting from Sweden, England or Germany.

Put Provence into a web browser and this is what you get... looks real beachy and tropical doesn't it?

Provence is basically on the same latitude as Portland, Maine... a beautiful place to visit but not a place people think of as a place to go sun bathing on a warm beach vs taking a nice walk around a rocky beach or taking a boat out into the harbor bundled up inside their best wind breaker. Not to say it doesn't get "warm" in Portland it does... but that's not the perception is it? Granted St. Tropez itself is really 

43.5300° N, 5.4472° E

Take a cruise around the South of France....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJBWGZfKCMk <--- nice="nice" p="p" yacht="yacht">

Put Portland, Maine Harbor into a web browser you get....

No Victoria Secrets Models... but a nice happy guy looking out at the water..

No bathing beautifies, rugged looking pictures that are poetically beautiful in an "up north cold coastline" sort of way. Mind you I've seen sunny warm days in Portland in Maine in the winter that felt warmer than Raleigh, North Carolina during a cold spell. There is something glorious about the sun in Portland in the winter but good ole Stephen King has not done a wonderful job as selling it as a the place to go to see beautiful people vs crotchety old men with sinister plots that have rough jagged edges.

In fact.... Portland is beautiful, Cape Elizabeth even more beautiful but it loses something in the literary translation sadly. 

Here's a video ... pilot boat in Portland, Maine...not a yacht...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y73wrprHk4s

43.6614° N, 70.2558° W

Put the Super Bowl into a web browser and you will be told that most people think San Francisco will beat the Ravens...

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/sports&id=8961653

I like the Ravens. 

As for the weather report... the cold Canadian Air is going to be moving DOWN into most parts of the US especially from the Mississippi River Eastward. And, by the way when I think of the Mississippi River I think of how it looks from Ft. Snelling in Minnesota not how it looks in New Orleans though I've been to both.. I've just spend more time in Minnesota.

This is where the Super Bowl will be:

And, yet my mind is in Minnesota today...

Two cities at two ends of the Mississippi...  though it keeps going north from here... it's beautiful on both ends and the world is a beautiful funny place.

The warm currents of the Mediterranean Sea .....how does that work have you ever wondered?

Read up on it if you are not interested in football or politics or the Inauguration today.

Sea Currents. The cold currents make the coldest winter Mark Twain ever spent in his life be a summer in San Francisco and they make Provence which is far to the north as the crow flies be a warm, sunny place to get a tan in Europe.

Links below... enjoy, have a nice warm beautiful day where ever you are even if you are bundled up in layers or getting a sun tan in Bal Harbor, Florida.

http://library.thinkquest.org/27115/pages/curnt/curnt.html

http://robinson.seas.harvard.edu/PAPERS/encycirc.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Current

http://science.kqed.org/quest/2011/08/08/the-deep-cold-secret-behind-summer-fog/

Did you know you can use this "tropical juice loop" to see when it is cold up north. Note how flat the colors are around NY and DC and New England... no tropical warm currents swirling up there today.. 

Have a nice day... as for me I have to get out today as it's going to be really cold the rest of the week but if there are blue skies I'll be happy. 

Yesterday was a glorious day... went to the Farmers Market (don't knock it...all the trendy types go there honestly... fresh food, Engine 2 Types.... people out walking their dogs... picking out produce and eating good local food.  Had a picnic at Whole Foods yesterday OUTSIDE with no sweaters on and yet... tomorrow it's suppose to be in the Teens wind chill wise.  A friend told my husband the other day... got to love Carolina.. you can experience all the seasons in one week...    

The gladiolas are pushing up through the warm ground that won't be so warm tomorrow..

Got to enjoy the sun while you can... and I can today and I will...

Besos Bobbi :)