What's Not to Love About the Cold?
Now this is winter. It's currently -3 degrees, heading for -12 overnight. (And, yeah, that's before the wind chill. Brrr...)
So it seems to be time for my preliminary "What's Not to Love About the Cold?" list:
1. Don't bother styling your hair in the morning (as if I needed an excuse) - you're gonna wreck your "do" with your hat, anyway! (Unless, of course, you don't wear one, but that's another post.)
2. No rush getting home from the grocery store! You can stop off at the coffee shop for a latte on your way home and ain't nothin' gonna thaw out. (Of course, Matt burst my bubble a little on this one, suggesting that the cold might actually be bad for, say, one's fresh produce. But...it's coffee!! I could sacrifice a pear or two.)
3. A really good time: when you're filling your gas tank and need to clear your windows (and you do - your windows are covered in icy salty crud and you can hardly see through them), you get to clear them with the window cleaner and watch as it instantaneously becomes a layer of ice on your windshield. Then you get to blast the defroster and watch it melt. So cool. You can enjoy this one a lot because it seems to get covered with crap again almost immediately.
4. Cherry Chapstick. I nearly forgot that which inspired me to create this list.
What do you love about the cold? Share your favorites now! A prize is on offer for the best answer!
posted by Jordan @ 6:00 PM
10 comments
10 Comments:
My boys wondering if THIS is the day they can spit outisde and it will freeze INSTANTLY. They take this very seriously.
Actually, I have TWO. My seconda favorite is seeing how excited Daniel gets about tracking the daily temperature on the Chicago Weatherpage. And the questions: "Mommy, is FIVE degrees colder or warmer than NINE degrees?"
Oh, man, what's not to love? I love my giant puffy parka, which I wore today for the first time. I love the way the snow squeaks when you walk on it. I love how the wind whips thin scrims of snow over the road. I love putting on layer after layer of clothing: longjohns, two pairs of socks, undershirt/teeshirt/sweatshirt/sweater. I love having the air sucked out of my lungs when I go outside. I love having a good excuse to drink lots of coffee and cocoa. I love hearing Minnesotans whine about the cold. And maybe most of all, I love thinking that maybe Mother Nature has a chance against global warming after all.
Wow! Spit! Freezing! Wait'll Baxter hears this!
And oh yeah, Christopher - cocoa and coffee! Yesterday I was all about combining the two. A mocha of sorts. Mmmm...
Come on, folks, let's hear some more!
I love the knitted nose cover to go over your nose because your nose ring might freeze to your nose. Remember those from Mac?
And its not spit, but I loved boiling water on the stove and running (don't tell Anya) with the pot to the back door of the veggie co-op at Mac to throw it in the air and watch it come down as snow.
Dear God! What was I doing with myself at Mac to have missed out on that???
This isn't quite about loving the cold per se, but I love that today playgroup was at MY house, so I did NOT have to bundle up a toddler and an infant and go outside in the minus 25 degree morning (not counting the windchill).
1. Nose hairs becoming tiny daggers stabbing the inside of my nose when they freeze.
2. My exhalations freezing in my neck gaiter, causing said gaiter to freeze in the shape of my mouth and chin.
3. Long underwear!
4. Sleeping in a hooded sweatshirt.
5. Wool socks!
6. Trying to find space in the plane's overhead compartment for all my coats.
7. All the cars on the road are as dirty as ours. On the outside, at least.
8. Bragging to my San Francisco co-workers that 25 degrees isn't really cold.
9. The cozy feeling your hands get when you put them back in your gloves after you have to take them off to handle the stinging metal of keys, bike locks, etc.
10. Warm coffee in your belly.
I love that everyone's a weather expert, "well, I heard that it was going to snow 1-2 inches with a high of 3 above." "No, I heard that we will get 2-3 inches of snow and it'll only be a high of 2 above."
There is a certain Dr. Zhivago-ness that I love. Maybe it's that I watched Dr. Zhivago while in the grip of an influenza induced fever (pun intended), but the movie seemed to consist entirely of a man walking through the deserted steppe and hearing the "crunch, crunch, crunch" of his footsteps.
Even Chicago can feel like Siberia when it is in the midst of a deep freeze and there is snow on the ground. There is a quietness to the world that makes it easy to imagine that I am Dr. Zhivago. I'm pretty sure that his story ends badly for him, but that's not a problem that I have encountered.
Being back in the "cold" (I used quotation marks because I know you hard core Midwesterners will challenge the fact that New York is truly cold at the moment) for the first time in about 2 years, here's what I like:
- Realizing it's just cold weather - not the end of the world that you make it out to be when you live in a place like San Francisco. You just go outside and it's cold. That's pretty much it. - My MASSIVE parka with a fur hood. It's so awesome, I've held onto it for 5 years since leaving here. And it's still amazing and super cute.
- The fact that going inside anywhere is a HUGE, really fun event. Even if it's work, or a pizza shop. That place becomes the best place ever for the short period of time you're in it.You smile at everyone and they (usually) smile back.
- The cold wakes you the hell up. Even if it's 2 a.m., you're awake. WIDE awake from the shock.
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