Monday, December 20, 2004

Fear and Trembling

I awoke this morning to an encouraging message about the latest new blog on the block.  Fellow CCRer Jen Wingard launched Fear and Trembling (in Academe) over the weekend.  Already, entry no. 2 is a riff on Texas, which is sure to rustle up some Lone Star snarl.  For me, it's a must-add to the blogroll--smart, thoughtful writing and a great way to give interested attention to stuff going on with others in the grad program. 

Added: Recent entries are brief not because my brain is mush but rather because I'm typing with mittens on. Yeah, mittens. It's -7 F this AM. We have heat, I think, and the furnace is working its blower off, but seven below feels pretty cold right now. Enjoy Texas, Jen.

Bookmark and Share Posted by at December 20, 2004 6:31 AM to On Weblogs
Comments

-7? Enjoy it! It was -22 here this morning at 9 am.

Posted by: Johndan at December 20, 2004 3:16 PM

Thanks, Johndan. Always colder in Potsdam and surrounds, 'tis true. I wasn't even thinking about the weather anywhere else--just Syracuse and Texas. Of course, one extra log on the fire will likely make your place warmer than this drafty old apartment we call home. The mercury is back up to a balmy plus-4 this AM, so I can shed a layer and type more than a sentence at a time without my hands freezing.

Posted by: Derek at December 21, 2004 6:50 AM

I know that it's cliche to talk about the weather around here, and once you've lived here long enough you get sick of non-cny people asking "don't you get a lot of snow?" and you say "yeah, 71 inches in 30 hours last year."

But. Oh. My. God. It was so cold yesterday it hurt to breathe. My neighbor insists that the indigenous people of cny only came this far north in the summer to hunt and fish, and that during the winter it was considered highly foolish to travel north of Oneida Lake.

So, Derek: some suggestions (many you may have already put to work):

get that shrink wrap for your windows. It works! And it's not THAT ugly. If you can get it nice and tight (via blowdryer), you don't even know it's there.

blanket/towels and the bottoms of the external doors. Or, if your external door is extremely leaky, you can do what my cny-crazed husband does: hang a huge quilt over the entire door and fashion weights and fastening devices so it hangs tightly to the door.

wool. Here, I am slightly biased since my mother is a shepherd who shears, spins, knits everything wool. But NOTHING keeps feet warmer than wool. nothing.

hot tea.

And a finally, one last remark: remind yourself you won't have to freeze your butt off here forever. You will escape.

Posted by: madeline at December 21, 2004 8:58 AM

Dood, in grad school back in the Day, my Treasured Partner and I stuffed newspaper around the door each evening when we arrived home. Though we didn't walk 9 miles barefoot thru the snow.

Posted by: senioritis at December 21, 2004 8:13 PM

Your mom and I enjoyed 2 winters in the Keweenaw while I was studying at MTU. Hurricane force winds with sub-zero temps and well over 300 inches of snow a season was typical weather for the region. I'd walked to class everyday. After classes I'd hit the x-country ski trails & put in about 20 K. (My Norwegian ski coach would never wear gloves. He had photos of himself and friends getting tanned on the snow covered mountain slopes in Norway--shirts off) If it was above 10 degrees F, I'd be drenched in sweat with icecycles hanging from my beard. Jeff used to love it. Your mom would bundle him up and take him out to watch the races. Of course, that was a long time ago, and in a place, far, far away, B. D. (Before Derek)

Oh, by the way, I'm thinking of joining a local Polar Bear club. There's lots of ice in Lake Erie now. A refreshing dip would be very invigorating.

Posted by: pops at December 21, 2004 9:24 PM

Of your great suggestions, I'm working one of them--hot tea. Landlord said he was going to dress the windows for winter, but he's busy (and a grad student, first-time homeowner no less) so we might end up doing that ourselves. Wool, towels...all good suggestions, if only I could feel my toes, I'd get off my duff and *do* something about the draftiness. Then again 50-degree temps today remind me of late August.

Re newspapers: this *is* the digital age, Dr. H. Maybe I could print weblog entries, crumple them, wedge those to fill up the gaps, eh?

And Dad, I know I wasn't part of the Keweenaw scene. In fact, as the only one in the family whose never lived (for more than a few teeth-chattering summer weeks) in the U.P., I am not as weather hardened as the rest. But I do distinctly remember riding in a back-pack thing on more than one x-country skiing outing, and I was miserable. Why? Freezin' cold, and all I get to do is sit in a pack. Few things more relaxing than skiing through fresh snow with a never-too-numb-to-howl child strapped on your back, right? Look forward to hearing more about the PB club. Good luck with that.

Posted by: Derek at December 23, 2004 8:57 AM