It has been cold and snowy all week. Yesterday the snow stopped and it seemed clearer. On my way to work I passed a bank that said the temperature was -14 degrees F. Huh, I guess it wasn’t warmer after all.
This fits in with my theory that 20 degrees in absolute zero. As the temperature drops towards 20 you feel colder. Past 20 it starts feeling warm enough that working outside seems reasonable. I grant that this may be due entirely to the beginning stages of hypothermia.
Snowball is refusing to go outside unless it is the most dire of emergencies. She’s taken to sneaking around and trying to pee on the rugs without being noticed. Riley on the other hand has wanted to go out. He runs full speed outside and head long into the Arctic chill. Then you can tell that he wants to turn around and run back but he considers that undignified. So he strolls looking unconcerned but moving with purpose to the door. I refuse to hold the door open in negative gazillion degree weather to accommodate the dignity of a cat who’s been known to fall off the couch while sleeping. He doesn’t have much dignity left. So I shut the door and count to five and then open it for him. He then strolls in like he owns the place and I’m just the humble doorman. I don’t even get a tip.
You’re NOT wrong, necessarily. Between about -20 and -35 it actually feels pretty tolerable, especially if you’re keeping busy. Once you get below -35 and into the -40’s and colder, though…. it’s just plain intollerable again, of the sort that pretending otherwise CAN and HAS killed folks when not properly responsive to the cold. (In other words, it’s one thing to be out in that temp, constantly moving, with a purpose and a place to be that is warmer. Quite another to stand out with no purpose, wasting time. Or be out with ANY purpose if you’re not properly dressed.)
Stay warm. (FWIW, we had 45 deg ABOVE 0 when I let the dogs out at 11 am. Possibly warmer than that now, at 1 pm.)