Sunday, December 19, 2010

Cold shock (updated)

Holy friggin' frig, how cold it is this morning!
The real winter of much of the UK has now reached the North-West too, real snow, real frost.
The temperature fell so radically this night that I have elected to forego views of the pretty snow  and instead preserving warmth by leaving blinds and curtains shut and having the lights on.
My weather services continue to predict only barely frost locally, one may hope.

BTW, here's a tip: long underwear.
I'm sure many will say "duh!", but I've found that many are not aware of how big a help it is when it really gets cold. Many are even too vain to use it at all, which is dumb.

Update:
When I got up this morning, it felt like neither I nor my apartment would ever become warm enough. But like I knew would happen, after having eaten and later having taken a walk, when I came in again it was just too hot! And of course it was only a couple degrees warmer if that.

During the walk I nicked into Currys electronics and browsed a couple of minutes. Bought some batteries and a matte screen cover for my iPad. (It helps against both reflections and fingerprints.) I was helped by the Indian-heritage girl they have who is just immoderately beautiful. Oh-my-gaaawd. She's just got it all, she knows it, and she knows how to show it to best advantage (even in the boring dark blue shop uniform). It's a pity though how such beauties apparently sometimes feel they have to be somewhat cold. I guess if they are warm and pleasant, they'll just never get rid of every third man they talk to. ... On the other hand, some of them manage okay even though they are very sweet too, what do I know.
(Hey, this bit even fits into the cold/warm theme of this post.  :-)

9 comments:

Philocalist said...

Very mixed feelings about the current cold weather; we've already had two substantial snowfalls, though latterly it's simply been COLD.
I LIKE snow ... I much prefer it to the alternative, rain. Sure, life slows down a little, but so what, that can often be a good thing ... unless its taken to an extreme ....
As in: it has been impossible for some time now to schedule either delivery or collection here, by ANY of the 'known' couriers, even for a local delivery.
The reason? A 'severe weather' warning. Fair enough, I guess, except that for 10 days at least, our 'severe weather' has been bright blue skies, sunshine, dry, and the occasional fluffy cloud floating by!
Supermarkets deliver OK, postie still gets here ... but local retailers could not deliver a washing machine AT ALL due to this bloody weather ... yet I could (and did!) drive down there (all of a couple of miles, big bank in either direction), and chuck it in the back of the car without any issues at all!
Go figure! :-)

ps. Cold feet? The best solution I EVER found was paper bag on each foot underneath socks ... seriously! As a kid, fishing in all weathers / seasons, footwear was the ubiquitous rubber welly boot ... NOT known for its thermal properties, yet using this trick I would (and still do!) happily stand knee-deep in icy water for hours on end!.
OK, it's a bit 'crinkly' when you first put on your shoes / boots, but that last almost 2 whole minutes, to be replaced by lasting, toasty feet!
Hardest part is now finding paper bags!

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Huh! Sounds silly, but maybe I'll just try it.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Ah goody, Sainsburys managed to deliver today, Sunday and deep frost. I tipped the guy really well.

Anonymous said...

I do a lot of bicycling in snowy and cold weather and feel real fine being on top of the weather. I never use a helmet but I wear longjohns. The only problem is you have to get them off when you are inside for more than 15 minutes. Keeps you away from overheated shops and thus saves money....

Chris

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Use a cap to keep ears from freezing off?

Kent McManigal said...

How cold is cold to you? When I lived in Colorado there were weeks at a time when the thermometer never got above zero degrees F (around -18 C). And sometimes got down to where degrees C and F converge. (about -40, just in case you didn't know off the top of your head.) But, it was usually sunny and dry, and not at all uncomfortable.

Kentg said...

Here in central Oregon (USA) it's been mostly between -6 and 0 C with about 10 cm of snow on the ground right now. More fell but it compacted down. Expect snow off and on through Xmas. No body seems to be bothered except those few who dive their car into the snow banks. Nice that there is now just enough snow to practice my cross country skiing without heading to the mountain.

Anonymous said...

eolake said...
Use a cap to keep ears from freezing


and..

When it is snowing I use a baseball cap to keep the snow from clogging my binoculars

Chris

TC [Girl] said...

@ Kentg: here on the west side of same, we're "enjoying" a balmy 46F most times during the day and...although "soupy," from rain, I would rather have that than the snow and definitely the ICE! OMG! That is one of the SCARIEST things to have to deal with, driving...aside from IDIOT drivers, of course! :-/

Enjoy your cross-country skiing. Can't believe I'm actually admitting to this ('cuz I'm NOT very fond of winter!) but...I have thought that cross-country skiing would be a LOT more FUN, now, than when I was a kid in COLD Canada! Snow-shoeing is a BLAST as well and keeps a person warm enough to be down to t-shirt level, while doing so! Woo hoo! :-D

STAY WARM, everybody! Here's HOPING that there are NO POWER OUTAGES due to "extreme weather" like there was, a few years back. We were without power for 3 1/2 DAYS and discovered how inefficient our fireplace insert really is: the house wouldn't get warmer than 58 degrees, the whole time! :-(