Cold

Once it gets below a certain temperature its just cold. It all blurs into one long degree from absolute zero up until that certain temperature. I think that temperature might be 30 degrees F for me. Above that temperature I can tolerate everything, but below it, its all awful.

I like the snow, I think its beautiful. I like the winter too. But, when it won't quite make up its mind I think its just kind of depressing. There are sad patches of half melted snow all over the ground covering green grass. The sky is gray to the point you can't tell where the sun is.

I can recall two times in my life when I have been the very coldest, or when that cold was the least tolerable to me. I was walking out to my car up at Dover. I got up to my car and tried to open the door, but it was frozen shut. I couldn't even get to my ice-scraper. I walked back inside and called Lisa, who I was going to see and who is getting home off her mission in 8 days, and I told her it was too cold for me to go out. I crawled under my electric blanket and tried to sleep. It was dark, but I think it was only 5:30pm. I also recall that weekend it got down to 2 degrees. The next night took Lee's Dad's binoculars (these are no ordinary binoculars, they require a tripod!) out into the middle of the street and found a comet in the middle of (or very near by, I don't recall exactly) Cassiopeia. I think it was Comet Holmes, but there were so many comets during those few months that its hard to remember. It was still just as cold, but the company made that cold tolerable. Funny how that works.

The other time I remember being the coldest, or that cold being the least tolerable was last night, as I was trying to find my car in the gigantic UVU parking lot. I parked in a hurry because I was late and I am always thinking of something other than where I am and what I am doing, so if I do not take very special notice of exactly where I parked my car it is very likely I will not remember. The funny thing is I remember exactly what I was thinking about when I parked my car. It was a Dr. Seuss rhyme that I was playing with in my head and imagining what it would have been like if Dr. Seuss had written Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and if Marshmallow Popcorn had been around back then how he would have included it, which he certainly would have. Anyway, that was really cold looking for my car last night. I didn't have a coat and it was windy. At one point I crouched down behind some ridiculously large Ford truck to hide from the wind. I never thought I'd be glad to see one of those. That was cold. It was like ice in my bones.

Sometimes I fantasize about going to work in Antarctica because I could hear Weddell Seals (trust me, you really want to click on that link and listen) and see penguins and the Southern Lights, which I imagine are just as good as their northern counterparts (The Polar Aurora on Saturn on the other hand I think are probably the best). If I ever do go to work at either of the poles I imagine I will amend my thoughts about 30 degrees and lower all being the same. But, maybe the company of lights and seals would make it tolerable.