Bluster
What is it about cold weather that makes men and women of all ages
turn on the machismo? It's been cold here for a couple weeks now, and
people just love to point out that they don't need a hat, or that
they're not wearing gloves, or that we must be wimps for needing some
piece of outerwear that they're getting by without.
Yes, I know that it will get colder. Much, much colder. I lived here
for the first 18 years of my life, after all, and spent the next four
in a place much colder than this. I can bore you with stories about
braving the elements in a -90º Farenheit wind chill to help my friend
Becky move her college belongings into storage.
But that's not my point. My point is this — what's the matter with
dressing to keep the cold at bay, even if it's a comparatively balmy
40 degrees? Yes, I know it will get colder than this. But that
doesn't make me any less comfortable in my silkweight long johns.
And why is there no comparable summertime machismo? Why, when it's
only 70 degrees, does no one snidely comment, "Oh, don't worry, it
will get SO much hotter than this..."? I think everyone who laughs
now at those of us in gloves should be required to wear their
sweaters until the mercury hits 95. Yaknow, just so I don't think
they're some kind of weather wimp.
posted by Matt @ 2:19 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Hmm. Could it just be Chicagoans trying to school the Californians, not knowing that you have some experience (like more than 2/3rds of your life) with the cold? Nobody here busts anyone's chops like that!
I'm wholly with you on dressing for conditions as you perceive them. But at the same time, I get a little worried about the undergrads I see trooping across campus (today it's in the lower 30s, with no wind) as if dressed to summit Everest. What'll they do when it really does get cold? There are only so many sweaters you can squeeze under that North Face! Ahh, well. I suppose the bundled-up girl's going to be happier over the long term than the shorts-and-flip-flops boy.
Man, when you are used to temperatures that stay between 50-70 degrees year-round, 30 feels absolutely absurd to your system! It probably feels to my body the way a 0-degree day feels to someone who has been here a while. I know we'll adjust (I've already had a day where I thought, "Wow, it's nice out today!" only to discover it was 39 degrees) but when it first hits you do have to bundle up more than the average person.
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