Relative Something

There is nothing like jumping from the warmth of a weekend in the Florida sun to the extreme bite of a Minnesota cold snap. It’s funny seeing the reactions of people who have never experienced bitter cold as they contemplate what it must be like.

I am always surprised how many things actually survive the extreme cold temperatures, even though a few things are pushed beyond their limits. If a car isn’t properly prepared, the cooling system can freeze up and, ironically, the engine can overheat. Tires can lose air when the seal of rubber against the metal rim develops a leak. Occasionally, the deep freeze can cause roads to heave and create pot holes that swallow whole tires. But for the most part, life does go on with nary a hitch. Traffic moves, people function. Schools, businesses, and stores continue to operate, regardless the hyper, overly desperate, sensationalized, fear raising meteorologist’s rantings.

Minus 10–20°F feels pretty intense when it slaps you in the face and rides the otherwise warm path through your nose down into your lungs. There is a reason it gets described as biting cold. Nature knows about cold like this. Buildings and machines of metropolises, even when designed for such extremes, just don’t appear to belong when the bottom drops out on the thermostat readings.

I’ve been through over 50 of these Minnesota winters, and I still marvel over the way life carries on, despite how cold it might get. It is hard to explain, but no matter how biting cold it is, it is possible to stand outside and have a sensation of being warm. (No, not that desperate point of hypothermia where people start taking their clothes off type of warm.) There is something about feeling your body continue to function when everything around you seems to have come to a complete, frozen halt. It’s a warm feeling.

But it only lasts for a brief moment, and then you actually sense that you are beginning to come to that same complete, frozen halt, and you have to get the hell back inside. Minnesota is not for sissies.

Don’t forget to wear a hat.