Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Obligatory post about the weather

I had to chuckle last night when I saw that Yahoo! had two news items spotlighted.

One was a newscast about how deadly the cold was and how horrible it was that people were exposed to it in their jobs. The temperature they were talking about? 20 degrees. ABOVE zero.

The other was about the cold that was sweeping the midwest, and yes, even my community was mentioned for its notable freeziness. Our temperature? 37 degrees. BELOW zero.

20 degrees above zero sounds pretty tropical right about now. That's 57 degrees warmer than we are. And no, nothing closes when it's 37 below. I still have to walk from my car to work. That's about a block. Schools are in session, and some children walk home from school. The mall is open. The grocery store is open. Nothing closes.

I like to say that up here, our blood doesn't flow--it chugs. We're a hardy bunch up here. Or a totally nutso bunch???

4 comments:

Barbara said...

I vote for totally nutso!!! :)

It's going to 30 on Friday! Woohoo, not jacket required...

It's funny because a lot of people down south think wow, that's cold, but it's hard to put it in perspective. If the temperature changed from 90 to 23 in 2-3 days, people would definitely have perspective.

Kacie said...

I'm with you, sweetie! Last week, we were 30 below in Anchorage (-80 in Tok)--but everything stayed open. This morning, we hit 31 degrees; the snow turned to rain and froze on the streets, and everything's closed--the bases, the schools, and even the university. How silly is that? Y'all stay warm. Brrr...

Pattie said...

I'm thinking that when the people in town (yes I know which town, I'm here too) say it keeps the riffraff out, they're really not joking at all....

Janet Spaeth said...

Pattie, so good to hear from you!

Barbara, I went out yesterday without a jacket. Daring? Insane? Or a North Dakotan?

And Kacie, -80 in Tok? What do they warm up to in July? -40?