Baby It’s Cold Outside!

February 2, 2018 A Pugmire

A freezing cold fog has left a winter wonderland outside. Every twig and branch is covered in a shimmering coat of white. The air sparkles with frozen fairy glitter, beguiling and magical. I put on hat, boots, and coat to head out, open the door and stop short. My neighbor has sent her dog out to perform his necessaries and he flatly refuses to cross the threshold. His owner points emphatically. The dog shakes his head. Yes, he actually shakes his head, then slinks between her legs and goes back inside. I close my door, remove coat, boots, and hat, make a cup of cocoa and stare out the window wistfully. Spring seems a long time away.

The Weather Channel map is colored in cool blues and purples. Temperatures are single digit, and quickly go negative when the wind chill is factored in. Across the street kids cluster on the corner to wait for the school bus. They look out from narrow slits between hat and gator, every inch of skin covered in layers of silk, synthetics, and wool-like seven-layer burritos. Arms stick straight out, any possibility of bending completely out of the question.

The radio is playing “Love is Like a Heat Wave.” Maybe in Maui. My outing for the day turns out to be the walk to the mailbox. I should go farther but the wind has picked up. It hurts to blink. The school bus tires crunch over the frozen road, the crack of splintering ice echoing against the houses. The street is empty, not a bird, bug, jogger or dog walker in sight. My breath makes a frosty cloud, then seems to crystallize and fall to the ground. Baby, it’s cold outside and I’m going in!

Additional Reading

Winter Fun Facts

11 Wonderful Winter Weather Terms

Winter in the Wilderness: A Field Guide to Primitive Survival Skills

– David Hall

Winter Backpacking: Your Guide to Safe and Warm Winter Camping and Day Trips

– Ben Shillington and Rebecca Sandiford

Fun Facts

At 0 degrees on the Kelvin scale (-273.15 C) it’s so cold even atoms fall apart!
Any part of the body not covered loses heat, but the concentration of nerves in the head and neck can make them seem colder. The head and neck are five times more sensitive to temperature than the rest of the body.
Shivering moves muscles and tightens our skin to warm us
One of our nose’s functions is to warm the air we breathe before it reaches our lungs. Sometimes in a dry, cold environment it must add moisture to warm the air. Too much extra moisture makes our nose run.

Fun Facts???

It’s so cold that:

Boiling water flash freezes when thrown into the air

We didn’t clean the house – we just defrosted it

Squirrels are wearing fur coats

Pickpockets had their hands in their own pockets

Even the good humor man was in a bad mood

My husband said he’s not going outside until the temperature is above his age

Hot flashes are starting to feel kind of good

Quotables

“Better to keep warm than to try and thaw out your frozen bits later”

“Nothing burns like the cold.”

– George Martin

“Cold! If the thermometer had been an inch longer we’d have frozen to death.”

– Mark Twain

Everyone becomes a weather expert in the winter – spouting facts and statistics about wind chill calculations and record lows, snow falls, freezes, pile ups, drifts, windspeeds, etc….. In the summer we don’t talk about these things – we’re too busy having fun outside!

Poet’s Corner

The Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert W. Service

“January”

The days are short,
The sun a spark,
Hung thin between
The dark and dark.

Fat snowy footsteps
Track the floor.
Milk bottles burst
Outside the door.

The river is
A frozen place
Held still beneath
The trees of lace.

The sky is low.
The wind is gray.
The radiator
Purrs all day.

– John Updike

It’s winter in Canada
And the gentle breezes blow
Seventy kilometers an hour
At thirty-five below.

Oh, how I love Canada
When the snow is up to your butt
You take a breath of winter
And your nose gets frozen shut.

Yes, the weather here is wonderful
So I guess I’ll hang around
I could never leave Canada
I’m frozen to the bloody ground!!

– Jay Juniper

Try This

Try freezing bubbles in your backyard with the recipes below:

Giant Soap Bubble Solution
1 cup liquid dish soap
1/2 cup light corn syrup
3 cups water

Hint: Adding corn syrup to soap bubbles creates a sugar polymer that forms a stronger bubble that holds its shape long enough to be frozen.

Here’s another recipe from KaroSyrup.com.

6 cups water
1 cup Karo® Light Corn Syrup
2 cups (16 ounces) clear dishwashing liquid

Stir water and corn syrup in a large bowl (at least 3 quart capacity).Add dishwashing liquid; stir very gently until well mixed, trying not to make any bubbles.To use, dip (do not stir) bubble wand into liquid and blow bubbles!Tips for BIG BUBBLES:
* If using large bubble wands, pour solution into a cake pan or skillet for easy dipping.

* Stirring causes bubble solution to foam and foaming inhibits bubble formation. If foam develops, scrape off with a stiff card.

* Bubbles work best on humid days.

* Keep solution free from dirt, grass, bugs, etc.

* Bubbles are non-toxic but should not be consumed.

* Solution will irritate eyes; if bubbles get in eyes, rinse thoroughly with water.

– World’s highest motorable road – Umling La or Umlingla Pass in Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir – at 5,883 meters or 19,300 feet above sea level.

– World’s lowest motorable road – Route 90 in Israel passing along the western bank of the Dead Sea at a -423 meters or 1,388 feet below sea level (Note: there are lower elevations but this is considered the lowest motorable road.)

– Straightest Road – The Eyre Highway in Australia that is a 90 mile stretch of road without a single curve – which pales beside highway 10 in Saudi Arabia – 140 miles of straight blacktop with only a slight bend near the Emirati border.

– Most crooked road – Lombard Street in San Francisco still retains that honor according to the Guinness World Record Book – it’s 8 hairpin turns equal 1,440 degrees of curved road in only 400 meters, and it has a mandatory 5 mph speed limit.

– Longest road – the Pan American Highway that links both North and South American except for a 100 km distance called the Darien Gap – the approximate length is 48,000 km or 29,826 miles.

– Oldest road – a stone paved road in a desolate corner of Egypt linking a basalt quarry to a waterway for transportation – estimates put it at 4,600 years old.

The Roads

I stand on the windy uplands among the hills of Down
With all the world spread out beneath, meadow and sea and town,
And ploughlands on the far-off hills that glow with friendly brown.

And ever across the rolling land to the far horizon line,
Where the blue hills border the misty west, I see the white roads twine,
The rare roads and the fair roads that call this heart of mine.

I see them dip in the valleys and vanish and rise and bend
From shadowy dell to windswept fell, and still to the West they wend,
And over the cold blue ridge at last to the great world’s uttermost end.

And the call of the roads is upon me, a desire in my spirit has grown
To wander forth in the highways, ‘twixt earth and sky alone,
And seek for the lands no foot has trod and the seas no sail has known:

For the lands to the west of the evening and east of the morning’s birth,
Where the gods unseen in their valleys green are glad at the ends of the earth
And fear no morrow to bring them sorrow, nor night to quench their mirth.

C.S.Lewis

Create a backyard treasure hunt using clues that require compass readings or rely on cardinal directions – north, south , east, west.

To make a map for players to follow print out an online Google maps picture of your yard (or park – wherever you choose to do this). Use a colored pen to mark compass points on the map so that players can orient themselves to their surroundings.

Keep instructions simple.

You can create a map for each player, leading to an individual treasure, or divide players up into teams for a team treasure hunt.

Players can use a compass, a GPS device, or phone to point them in the right direction, or if they are especially observant, their own observations of the sun.

When the treasure has been found, challenge the players to create their own treasure map. Trade maps with another player and follow the clues to a new treasure.

Favorite treasures at our house have been edibles packed in Ziplocs, but a close second was a plaster of paris turtle my mother painted in garish colors that could be buried and reburied a hundred times without altering its appearance.