Some of the gems in this email:
~65 Above Zero: Floridians turn on the heat, people in Upstate NY plant gardens.
~50 Above Zero: Italian & English cars won't start, people in Upstate NY drive with the windows down.
~35 Above Zero: NYC landlords finally turn up the heat, people in Upstate NY have one last cookout before it gets cold.
~20 Above Zero: People in Miami all die, Upstate New Yorkers close the windows.
~Zero: Californians fly away to Mexico, people in Upstate NY get out their winter coats.
~10 Below Zero: Hollywood disintegrates. Girl Scouts in Upstate NY are selling cookies door to door.
~40 Below Zero: All Atomic motion stops. People in Upstate NY start saying 'cold enough fer ya?'
~50 Below Zero: Hell freezes over. Upstate NY public schools will open 2 hours late.
~50 Above Zero: Italian & English cars won't start, people in Upstate NY drive with the windows down.
~35 Above Zero: NYC landlords finally turn up the heat, people in Upstate NY have one last cookout before it gets cold.
~20 Above Zero: People in Miami all die, Upstate New Yorkers close the windows.
~Zero: Californians fly away to Mexico, people in Upstate NY get out their winter coats.
~10 Below Zero: Hollywood disintegrates. Girl Scouts in Upstate NY are selling cookies door to door.
~40 Below Zero: All Atomic motion stops. People in Upstate NY start saying 'cold enough fer ya?'
~50 Below Zero: Hell freezes over. Upstate NY public schools will open 2 hours late.
I know we are emerging from our winter cocoons, and want to think of warm days, not bitter cold. Yet I am just now trying to get caught up on my blogging for the winter. I have a list of things I wanted to blog about. Although, some of the things on the list have been crossed off, because I have no idea what I meant. So I hope my readers will indulge me. Oh, and for my non- US readers, these temps are in Fahrenheit.
I am not a jacket person. I own plenty. I just don't wear them all the time. I do wear my winter one all winter, once it gets cold enough. For me, cold enough is below freezing. I will wear a fall jacket when it gets below 50, down into the 40's. I hold out wearing a winter coat as long as I can. People often joke that they know it is cold when I finally bring out the winter coat. So of course, I found the part about jackets coming out at 0 hilarious! I'm not quite that bad. But I do run around with my coat unzipped ALL the time. It has to be extremely cold and blustery for me to zip my jacket, and even then, I usually just hold it closed across my chest and walk a little faster.
I remember selling Girl Scout cookies in the dead of winter. Cold never stopped us. Cold didn't stop us from having recess outside either. I got frostbite in 4th grade. We had been outside playing, and no doubt my friend Drew and I and Angela (maybe even April) were playing the Purple Glove Gang- one of us girls would drop a purple glove as we left the scene of a bank robbery, and Drew- the Sherlock Holmes of Stephentown Elementary, would use the glove to figure out who the bandit was that day. I remember when we came back inside and started working at our desks, the teacher kept looking at me. Then she went and got the school nurse, and I was pulled out of class. They kept asking if I felt ok, and I told them I did. Turns out, I had a touch of frostbite on my cheeks. (I wasn't really good at wearing my scarves or hats either, and of course, the gloves came off to play our game!).
Our school district had three elementary schools. One in the north part of the district, one in the middle, and one in the southern portion. We lived about five minutes from the middle elementary school, but my parents chose to send us to the one in the southern portion. Many of the kids in our town went to that school- in fact, our whole neighborhood did. So we had an hour bus ride. Our bus was old, and in the winter the heat did not work. On the coldest days, those actual temperature of 20 or 30 below zero days, our bus driver encouraged us to keep moving. When we were on the main road, we had to stay in our seats. But once we were on a back road, she let us get in the aisle and move around. Jumping jacks, hopping up and down, anything that kept us moving and kept the blood flowing. Her rule was that the smallest children had to be between the bigger ones, so that we could protect them a little better. As we neared the end of the road, we all knew to take our seats before she got on the main road again. She was one of the strictest bus drivers, but on those cold days, we loved her.
I have a theory about the cold. You feel 0, and you feel 10 below. You feel 20 below too. But anything below -20 is just COLD. Your body cannot distinguish that this is another level of cold. You just know you are freezing. You add another layer of clothes from head to toe, you consume another thermos of hot beverages. My dad used to take three thermoses on the coldest days- two with coffee and one with soup for lunch. My parents have a one car garage, and when I started driving, we had two cars, plus Dad's work truck. He had to plug his truck in at night so the fuel line would not freeze. We backed my car between the house and the garage, so the buildings would break the wind off the vehicle. Dad put an old blanket over the hood, to keep the engine a little warmer. In the morning, I went out to start the car and hoped the key would turn over. If it didn't, we had to catch the bus, or Mom had to run us to school before she left for work. I'm sure some scientist would like to argue with my theory. It's just my personal theory, based on my personal experiences.
As much as I like winter, I am glad we are leaving the long cold days behind. And in about 4 months, I'll be begging for -20!
I am not a jacket person. I own plenty. I just don't wear them all the time. I do wear my winter one all winter, once it gets cold enough. For me, cold enough is below freezing. I will wear a fall jacket when it gets below 50, down into the 40's. I hold out wearing a winter coat as long as I can. People often joke that they know it is cold when I finally bring out the winter coat. So of course, I found the part about jackets coming out at 0 hilarious! I'm not quite that bad. But I do run around with my coat unzipped ALL the time. It has to be extremely cold and blustery for me to zip my jacket, and even then, I usually just hold it closed across my chest and walk a little faster.
I remember selling Girl Scout cookies in the dead of winter. Cold never stopped us. Cold didn't stop us from having recess outside either. I got frostbite in 4th grade. We had been outside playing, and no doubt my friend Drew and I and Angela (maybe even April) were playing the Purple Glove Gang- one of us girls would drop a purple glove as we left the scene of a bank robbery, and Drew- the Sherlock Holmes of Stephentown Elementary, would use the glove to figure out who the bandit was that day. I remember when we came back inside and started working at our desks, the teacher kept looking at me. Then she went and got the school nurse, and I was pulled out of class. They kept asking if I felt ok, and I told them I did. Turns out, I had a touch of frostbite on my cheeks. (I wasn't really good at wearing my scarves or hats either, and of course, the gloves came off to play our game!).
Our school district had three elementary schools. One in the north part of the district, one in the middle, and one in the southern portion. We lived about five minutes from the middle elementary school, but my parents chose to send us to the one in the southern portion. Many of the kids in our town went to that school- in fact, our whole neighborhood did. So we had an hour bus ride. Our bus was old, and in the winter the heat did not work. On the coldest days, those actual temperature of 20 or 30 below zero days, our bus driver encouraged us to keep moving. When we were on the main road, we had to stay in our seats. But once we were on a back road, she let us get in the aisle and move around. Jumping jacks, hopping up and down, anything that kept us moving and kept the blood flowing. Her rule was that the smallest children had to be between the bigger ones, so that we could protect them a little better. As we neared the end of the road, we all knew to take our seats before she got on the main road again. She was one of the strictest bus drivers, but on those cold days, we loved her.
I have a theory about the cold. You feel 0, and you feel 10 below. You feel 20 below too. But anything below -20 is just COLD. Your body cannot distinguish that this is another level of cold. You just know you are freezing. You add another layer of clothes from head to toe, you consume another thermos of hot beverages. My dad used to take three thermoses on the coldest days- two with coffee and one with soup for lunch. My parents have a one car garage, and when I started driving, we had two cars, plus Dad's work truck. He had to plug his truck in at night so the fuel line would not freeze. We backed my car between the house and the garage, so the buildings would break the wind off the vehicle. Dad put an old blanket over the hood, to keep the engine a little warmer. In the morning, I went out to start the car and hoped the key would turn over. If it didn't, we had to catch the bus, or Mom had to run us to school before she left for work. I'm sure some scientist would like to argue with my theory. It's just my personal theory, based on my personal experiences.
As much as I like winter, I am glad we are leaving the long cold days behind. And in about 4 months, I'll be begging for -20!
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