Minnesota in deep winter

[pegkerr]

Each breath in feels like an assault on the body, stabbing deep within the lungs, almost snatching away the ability to breathe out again. After a few moments, the nose runs like a faucet. If you have to wear glasses, good luck: within seconds they'll become covered with steam that freezes into a scrim of ice. Fingers quickly become numb, even through gloves. People move slowly, lumbering like bears, their feet sheathed in thick boots, wearing parkas with the hoods up, snapped around the neck, faces half hidden behind knitted scarves. Light has a strange, crystalline quality, with sun dogs around the sun in the morning, and a ring around the moon at night. Going in and out of the house or a store is painful, carefully executed--don't leave the door open too long. Put the gloves on before touching the door handle outside, or the coldness of the metal will sear your skin. Make sure the padded draft stopper is pushed up at the crack between the bottom of the door and the floor. Boots pile up in front of the doors, globs of dirty snow melting, a nasty surprise if you step in the wrong direction in your stocking feet. Going into work feels like a victory, like you deserve a medal or a bonus or a free cup of decadent coffee just for having made it in.

People check to make sure that the jumper cables and chemical hand warmers are in the back of the car, that the cell phone is fully charged before going out. Strangers willingly jump each other's cars in the parking lot; everyone understand that you might be the one stuck next time, so you'd better be willing to extend the helping hand this time.

What I did today to make the world a better place:

Dropped off an old cell phone at the collection box at Best Buy for recycling; proceeds to go to charity. And loaned jumper cables to jump sensei's car.

Comments

[jbru.livejournal.com]

I think the cold like this is one of those things that lends itself to the "Minnesota Nice" mystique. We have to get along with each other or we won't make it through this. As modern conveniences and services have become more common, though, I think the absolute need for the other has eroded and that our society has suffered for it.

[elisem.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there was always this unspoken rule that it was Simply Not Done to let somebody you dislike freeze to death in the winter by refusing to help push them out of the snowbank or something. It was not playing fair.

You have to wait until spring to snub 'em, when it's not life-threatening.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

In Maine, the old rule is "If your worst enemy has a house fire in winter, you have to take him in."

[moodyduck.livejournal.com]

I was just up in Fairbanks, Alaska, for the holidays with my family. We hit a major cold snap, enough even to try Alaskans, not the very deepest lows, but a long one. My parents are both retired for five years now, and each of them independently commented on trips into town: "I can't believe I used to go to work every day in this."

[naomikritzer]

The thing that always startles me on the bitterly cold days is how loud the airplanes are, overhead. Very cold air conducts sound more effectively.

The other thing that always startles me is how many people clearly like this kind of weather. They don't necessarily like experiencing it but they definitely like the bragging rights for getting through it.

[tinymich.livejournal.com]

Ohhh, I can't even IMAGINE. We had 15F today, 7 with windchill, and actively swirling snow, and already we were all miserable. ("Snow keeps blowing into my face! I had to walk so slowly, and even so I nearly fell! It's so cold I can't feel my face anymore -- oh, this windchill!" All that and the trains broke down -- the engines stopped working in the cold, and people had to get out and walk on the tracks in the snow to the next station. Not me, thank heavens, but my colleague was 90 minutes late to work from that.)

I can't IMAGINE what living in Minnesota must be like. You are all clearly of much hardier stock than I. My deepest sympathies and virtual cups of steaming cider to all of you...

[emerdavid.livejournal.com]

Strangely enough, one does get used to it. I grew up in central Florida, where the coldest it ever got was just around freezing (sending panicked orange growers out into their groves to fire up the smudge pots). Yet now that it's below zero, I just bundle up in my down parka and Thinsulate mittens and go outside thinking, "This isn't so bad."

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I am embarrassed to admit that I don't know which clip goes on which terminal when jumping a car, and I've been a Minnesota driver for 32 years, and a car owner for almost 27.

K.

[jbru.livejournal.com]

These days, they're helpfully color coded. If you get an older set of cables or an older car, however, you'd still be out of luck.

[rezendi.livejournal.com]

It sounds a bit like a desert culture, where a hospitality reflex is ingrained into everyone, and you share water with strangers without even thinking about it.

I remember all this with a shudder

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

...and know I need to go to REI and stock up on heavy wool socks and chemical hand warmers.

Thinking thoughts of safety and warmth for you!

[aome.livejournal.com]

A WI friend of mine commented on -36F windchill or something horrid like that. How bad was it in MN? Stay safe and warm, ok?

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

It was certainly at least that cold, if not colder. I believe that here in the twin cities the windchill flirted with around mid-forties below?

It can be quite dangerous. Frost bite starts setting into bare skin with about three minutes of exposure.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

I read in the paper this morning that yesterday was the coldest day in the past five years.

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

One of the things I noticed while tramping around the farm was that when it was very cold the bridge of my nose and just underneath my eyes felt like it'd turned into cold, blue steel.

I tend to worry about getting frostbite on the tip of my nose, since that's where my post cancer skin transplant is.

Oh, heard from my sister in Winnipeg. The temp up there was lower than both the North AND South Poles...

[nmalfoy.livejournal.com]

Okay, I guess that Minnesota is home because I keep wondering WHY WOULD ANYONE LIVE THERE?

[volkhvoi.livejournal.com]

What a great description! That is *exactly* what it's like!

[aerden.livejournal.com]

Oh, my God...Do you live where the weatherman froze a wet t-shirt solid in under two minutes, the other night?

That was one of the most disturbing things I've ever seen, outside of the movies.

*wishing warmness for you!*

Chantal