I was outside for over two hours this morning, working with others, mostly strangers. The winds were high, and the overall wind-chill below zero. We were on pavement and not moving intensely, only transferring packages of food from racks to tables outdoors.
Cold makes people stupid. You can not only watch it happening in others, you can feel it happening in yourself.
5 comments:
I hadn't noticed. I thought it was just the mind-numbing chore of digging snow and chopping ice--though perhaps a time or two when I didn't draw the line and shoveled the driveway into the street might count.
If you're not moving to keep blood pumping and not dressed appropriately there's a definite impact. I tried some new work gloves Saturday morning at the railway. Bad choice, my hands were aching from cold. If I hadn't had on insulated gear and good boots I would have only been thinking about how to get warm again. Once I was active I was fine.
I heard years ago that any part of you that has been frostbit is forever more susceptible to cold. I don't know it to be true, but I suspect it. Fingers and toes are the problem for me. The issue of wearing layers or having a windbreaker or whatever on my torso is much less important. I can walk a long way in bitter cold and wind without feeling the pinch. Wearing shorts is also not much problem. Even a little hair is a good fur, holding the warm air close. I do get the part about covering the head, because that is where 50% of the heat is lost. Especially if one is bald.
For those who don't deal with cold often, I will pass on the knowledge that mittens are hugely more valuable than gloves. If your having to have fingers active out in the cold is only a couple of minutes at a time, alternating with longer times back in the mitten, you are better off wearing the mittens and taking them off for quick work than clumsy gloves. I've never tried those mittens that shelter open-fingered gloves underneath, but I can see how they might be best of both worlds.
The difficulty with mittens is clumsiness, which is extreme. If digital dexterity is irrelevant, go with the mittens.
For those who don't deal with cold often, I will pass on the knowledge that mittens are hugely more valuable than gloves.
Yes, indeed. One Christmas I got some down mittens. In terms of use, that was the best Christmas present I ever had. I still have them, though I don't need them much.They have been useful in winter visits to New England.
I don't miss the long New England winters. By March I would be ready for warm weather, but warm weather took its time. Snow in April is both common and very unwelcome.
Recent temperatures have been in the 30s. I dressed up in plenty of layers, just as I would have back in New England, and was toasty warm during my walks.
I use a pair of those mitten-gloves from time to time--including the battery-changing day. I got light-weight ones, which was probably an error, and wind can get up inside them after a while. But they are very nice for a minute's detail work, and then shoving the mitten back over them to recover. Sort of a compromise--not as warm in glove-mode or in mitten-mode, but warmer than gloves that have any dexterity and way more dexterous than mittens.
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