Ahh, high speed Internet. How I’ve longed for thee. The cable guy just left and we’re no longer imprisoned in a world of dial-up across America. It’s the little things (and the fast things) that make me happy. So what if our bed doesn’t arrive until tomorrow? Now I can blog at the speed of light. Road Runner is so much faster than Earthlink DSL ever was.
In the days since The Toddler I’ve been…well, recovering. That was quite the burrito. Apparently everyone agreed since I got a number of emails about it.
It’s snowing outside right now. The falling snow really is beautiful, as are the snow-covered streets. It turns out that last week when we arrived in Saratoga, the region was experiencing extreme temperatures. Friday night when we walked to and from a local bar, it was -15. Yes, that’s fifteen degrees below zero. We thought we had become wimps living in California for so long. Turns out it was just really damn cold. It’s a warm 27 degrees or so right now.
It was so cold last week, in fact, that Happy was literally shaking every time we walked the dogs, so we figured he needed to warm him up with a fleece dog tartan. Both dogs also do this funny little three-legged dance to keep their feet warm. Next on the dog goodies list: Booties. As James said when I told him about Happy’s tartan, “Oh great. Now you guys are those people.”
Today Jen purchased some wooly mammoth slippers to stay warm in the house. The dogs think the slippers are wee critters and greeted them correspondingly. And I’ve noticed what a terrible effect the cold has on gas mileage. Whereas I normally get around 23 mpg in city driving, I’m getting only about 16.9 mpg here in the tundra. My theory about low mileage was confirmed this morning by Car Talk. The emissions from cars are noticeably more significant, too.
2 responses so far ↓
1 ben // Jan 15, 2004 at 2:53 pm
-15, mmmm, that sounds nice.
At least you can go skiing in it, oh you have tiny little hills out there 😛
2 Silus Grok // Jan 18, 2004 at 11:48 am
Remember, Gabe, dress in layers!
I grew up with this kind of weather, and the secret (strangely enough) is to keep one’s chest warm _first_. Apparently, the heart and lungs are very close to the skin, and the body’s defense mechanism will drain blood from other parts of the body to keep tempurature’s up around the heart… that’s why your fingers get cold so fast.
So cover the chest first, then regulate the rest of your body accordingly.
Also, you should try rice pillows (using a heavy-gage t-shirt fabric, stitch up a sache of dry rice), which are handy because you can nuke them for a few minutes and they’ll stay warm for a very long time.
The other secret is to not keep the house too warm… your body actually builds up mass in colder climes — hence the strange accuracy of the term “thin blooded” — and keeping your house too warm undermines the body’s awarness of the climate.
So thems my two cents.
: )