{"id":22120,"date":"2020-01-18T12:47:01","date_gmt":"2020-01-18T17:47:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=22120"},"modified":"2020-01-18T12:50:34","modified_gmt":"2020-01-18T17:50:34","slug":"taking-off-9-status-updated-again-january-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/taking-off-9-status-updated-again-january-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking Off #9: Status (Updated <em>Again<\/em>), January 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/johnesimpson.com\/images\/EuroWeather-CalendarBlocks_20200118_lg.jpg?ssl=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/johnesimpson.com\/images\/EuroWeather-CalendarBlocks_20200118_med.jpg?ssl=1\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"smalltext\"><em>[As before, if you want to see a larger and more legible version of the chart, you can either (1) maximize your browser window, and then click on the version above; or (2) view <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"a PDF version (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/images\/EuroWeather-CalendarBlocksSHADED_20200118.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">a PDF version<\/a> of it. Note that the latter is about 2.8 MB in size.]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Definitely a minor update today&#8230; If you&#8217;ve been following the excruciating intellectual saga to this point, you may remember that last weekend I posted an updated list of European cities we&#8217;re hoping to visit this year. That version of the list included a crucial refinement &#8212; it took into consideration:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Each country&#8217;s membership in the Schengen club; and<\/li><li>Our desire to be in the UK and Ireland <em>both<\/em> at the start of the trip, <em>and<\/em> during the month of August.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>This brought us a little closer to something like a real itinerary, because it shows how we&#8217;d propose to jump into and out of the Schengen region during the allowed 180-day period, without overstaying the  total of 90 days allowed in that window of time. The graphic depiction of this schedule included translucent indications of four distinct &#8220;calendar blocks,&#8221; as I think of them:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>A month-long stay in England only;<\/li><li>A month-long stay in some of the mid- and the northern Schengen area;<\/li><li>A two-month stay in the rest of the UK and Ireland (plus a visit to non-Schengen Bucharest at the end of that block); and<\/li><li>A two-month stay in the remaining Schengen area.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>(A fifth sorta-kinda vague block dangled at the end, in December; I assumed this to be up to a month back in the UK.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It took me a few days to realize what bugged me about last weekend&#8217;s version of the schedule. To wit: the margins of the four main calendar blocks were sharply delineated, suggesting that we had some precise idea when each block began and ended. Which is rubbish; we don&#8217;t <em>really<\/em> know yet when even the first block starts, nor when the last one ends &#8212; let alone where and when we&#8217;ll be cavorting around in the middle. All we know for sure is that we must be out of our apartment by the end of May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, then, the very minor update: I&#8217;ve replaced those translucent-green blocks with translucent-green-<em>gradient<\/em> blocks: the blocks now sort of taper off from one to the other, with a bit of overlap to indicate the vagueness of the milestones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">One other interesting and perhaps less trivial bit this week&#8230; When I told The Missus about the New Improved Finer-Tuned Schedule, she expressed some worry. &#8220;There&#8217;s nothing to be done about it,&#8221; she said, &#8220;but I just worry that we&#8217;re going to be too <em>cold<\/em> at the end of the six months.&#8221; (This worry springs not just from The Missus&#8217;s origins, waaaaay south of the Mason-Dixon line, but also from our desire to pack for as narrow a climatic range as we can predict.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So I&#8217;ve poked a bit more into the temperature data I&#8217;ve got, to come up with a projection of the <em>average highs and lows<\/em> we can expect during each calendar block &#8212; the highs from the earliest calendar month in each block, and the lows from the block&#8217;s ending month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"highlight\"><em>(This is the point at which you get to see my inner Database-Guy Obsessions-Compulsions exposed to embarrassing view.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s what I&#8217;ve got:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\" style=\"border-width: 0;\"><table class=\"\" style=\"width: 85%;\"><thead><tr><th class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong>Cal Block<\/strong><\/th><th><strong>From-To<\/strong><\/th><th class=\"has-text-align-right\" data-align=\"right\"><strong>Avg Starting High<\/strong><\/th><th class=\"has-text-align-right\" data-align=\"right\"><strong>Avg Ending Low<\/strong><\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong>1<\/strong><\/td><td>Jun-Jun<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-right\" data-align=\"right\">67.8<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-right\" data-align=\"right\">52.8<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong>2<\/strong><\/td><td>Jul-Jul<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-right\" data-align=\"right\">75.8<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-right\" data-align=\"right\">57.7<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong>3<\/strong><\/td><td>Aug-Sep<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-right\" data-align=\"right\">69.5<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-right\" data-align=\"right\">51.2<\/td><\/tr><tr><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong>4<\/strong><\/td><td>Oct-Nov<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-right\" data-align=\"right\">67.9<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-right\" data-align=\"right\">44.8<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8230;which isn&#8217;t <em>perfect<\/em>, to be honest: if perfect, there&#8217;d be a temperature spread of no more than 10-15 degrees between high and low for every block, and the temperature ranges from one block to another would more closely align. But it&#8217;s not bad. That one-month Block 2 is an outlier, obviously, but I&#8217;m certain we&#8217;d rather be a little too warm than a little too chilly in mid- and northern Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px; padding-right: 30px; font-size: 90%; line-height: 1.25em;\"><em>Aside: back when I first dreamed up using a giant table of average city-by-city climate conditions to guide our schedule, I included not just these European cities but also a half-dozen cities in the eastern US, for comparison purposes: Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Richmond, Atlanta, and Jacksonville. (As I said <a href=\"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2019\/08\/taking-off-3-weather\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">at the time I posted the first version<\/a>,  &#8220;This enables us to observe, for example, &#8216;In terms of its average weather, Bath in June resembles Philadelphia in October.'&#8221;) For what it&#8217;s worth, the range of average monthly highs to average monthly lows for those US cities, across the whole six-month period, is 84.8 degrees to 44.0 degrees.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">At this point, I think I&#8217;ve about wrung all I can out of the data side of the decision-making process. What remains is most important: actually, like, <em>making<\/em> some decisions &#8212; especially nailing down at least an arrival date in London. I&#8217;ll try to keep this up-to-date as we move along&#8230; but at least you won&#8217;t have to look at rows and columns of data any longer!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[As before, if you want to see a larger and more legible version of the chart, you can either (1) maximize your browser window, and then click on the version above; or (2) view a PDF version of it. Note that the latter is about 2.8 MB in size.] Definitely a minor update today&#8230; If [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Taking Off #9: Status (Updated *Again*, January 2020","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4948,4949],"tags":[1866,4952,4960,5053,5054,5061],"class_list":{"0":"post-22120","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-temporarily-expatting","8":"category-retirement","9":"tag-travel","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-travel-planning","12":"tag-itinerary-planning","13":"tag-bucket-lists","14":"tag-climate","15":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/EuroWeather-CalendarBlocks_20200118_thumb.jpg?fit=600%2C388&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-5KM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22120"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22135,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22120\/revisions\/22135"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}