Some idiot 17 year old froze his feet running bare foot for 5 minutes recently.
I wasn’t going to post this link, but have decided to now. It discribes a freezing senario, that could easily happen.
Article here.
That article scared the shit out of me, Harmonious. That could happen to any of us any time we decide to take a ride out in the county, away from Tim Hortons and nearby neighbours. We don’t think about the realities of freezing to death much; we have habits and arrangements to prevent it. It’s probably not a bad idea to have a reminder like that once in a while.
That article made my hair stand on end. Now I’m in tears.
We train ourselves to forget this.
But whenever my family set out on a winter trip along the main highway between Whitby and Peterborough, we would carefully pack extra blankets and candles and other supplies in the trunk of the car, for that road is windswept and dangerous in the winter.
:eek: :eek: :eek:
I reiterate: you people are crazy. I’ll live with the hurricanes and the suffocating heat and the mosquitoes the size of my hand, secure in the knowledge that I won’t die of exposure on the way to a friend’s house.
In the winter I have my camping sleeping bag and other stuff in the vehicle. I’ve had to many times where the next house is a mile or more away, the drifts are feet deep, and I’m worried the next one will stop the vehicle. I’ve had blowing snow burry my car to the roof top in a drift a couple times. I hate this weather.
Stuff = One burner propane cooking stove and pan for heating water, cocoa mix, a box of dehydrated soup, energy bars, water proof matches, candles. A complete change of old warm clothes, and outerware. You really want a change if you get wet, or are wearing something like dress clothes. A flashlight that you know works at 0F or keep a pen light in your inner coat pocket. The sleeping bag is good for mild frezing tempuratures. Cardboard and Old blankets that can be set on the ground to insulate you from the ground. Carry a shovel too. You can make a snow wall much easier, and you may be able to get through that drift. A milk jug filled with dry sand is very usefull for traction, when your stuck at the bottom of an iced hill, or stuck on glare ice. Flares do I need to mention them.
Reading this thread gives me an inkling of why the USA doesn’t give a stuff about global warming.
On the other hand, I love the cold. Mild winters depress the crap out of me. Today was a perfect day – low of about 17ºF, white frost and ice everywhere, crisp sunshine and a high of about 39 (I would have preferred it staying below freezing, but that is very rare). Last night was the coldest for about 5 years where I am.
And tonight we’re due some snow! 
Only 2 - 4 inches, but that’ll be the most significant snowfall in years, even if it is not expected to last long.
Unfortunately, the UK seems to have really borne the brunt of climate change, and cold winters are almost a thing of the past. I miss those big 1980s snowfalls…
A man was resqued from a fire likely started by smoking three weeks ago, and recently died from hypothermia after getting drunk. I would guess that alcohol was a factor in the fire also. Two other possible deaths in Wisconsin may be blamed on the cold depending on the autopsies. the man sat in sombody’s car for five hours, and his muscles gave out trying to go to his motel room. He was found the next day dead. It’s all on security cameras. It’s a shame that nobody looked at the video feed at like one hour intervals. Article. The local paper had better details but this is what a search turned up.
Here in Boston, we are also in a cold wave ( 17 F today). I took a walk in the woods yesterday, before sunset-and the snow was covered with little bids of things-they were the sheaths of the tree buds! Which tells me-even in the dead of winter, life is stirring! The buds are begiining to swell-which means that spring is coming! So, take courage, the cold will end (eventually).
I’m more bothered by the fact that its early february, and i haven’t been skiing yet! No snow, and still too cold-hope late february brings some good blizzards!
It’s never a good thing when the trees start to come back to life at this time of year here. They will get all their new buds frozen. We had a hard freeze after the lilacs sent out their flower buds one year - almost no lilacs bloomed that year. My poor daffodils tried to come up a couple times last winter (the chinooks fooled them really well) - they kept getting frozen. Then when spring came, they were too pooped to pop.
Colophon, I make an effort not to call it global warming, because that sounds way too good to Canadians. Climate change is a better term (I call it global weather screwing-up, myself).
For those still wondering why you would live here, or are looking for a remedy to the stuck in house blues, here’s a thread I have going on with Wisconsin and water as a theme. There are lot’s of links for interesting stuff.
Or the other possibility - I came home the other day and found the plug from the car’s block heater was still in the extension cord, and there was a bare cord dangling from the front of the car.
I’d helpfully plugged the car in before I walked to work, but I didn’t tell Mrs. Piper - thought she’d check automatically. But she remembered me saying the night before I’d forgotten to plug it in, so she didn’t check before she drove away…
Or you don’t realize your block heater cord is too long for some reason, and you drag your plug on the ground and wear the prongs off. (Hey, I’ve only done that once.)
Or it’s too cold and frozen to plug into the extenion cord. I run the extension cord through at the back of the hood by the windsheild. It’s the way I remember the extension cord is connected.
I’ve fought with rock-hard extension cord plugs more times than I care to think of. I needed a new extension cord this year, and ended up with a high-quality, contractor’s grade cord (with a big, clear, lit up end on it). That sucker is easy to plug in and out, with it’s really large, easy to grip plug-in end.
Must have been watching Atanarjuat (a fantastic Inuit movie!): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0285441/awards
In the movie a fellow runs naked across sea ice for a very long way.
In the documentary of the making of the movie, we see that in fact the fellow runs naked across sea ice for a very long way. No foot protection. No special effects. Just some poor naked bastard running like hell across sea ice. Ouch!
And then there was the day the block heater cord broke the car’s grill when I forgot to unplug before backing up – the plug was frozen into the receptical.
My block heater cord would probably take off my front bumper if it froze into the receptacle - I don’t know who installed it, or how, but they rammed the cord THROUGH my bumper (between the fibreglass and the styrofoam) and left juuuuust enough end to plug in. I took my car to the Toyota dealership (it’s a Corolla), and they couldn’t figure out how it was done or how to undo it, either.
The teen was doing a football tradition the faily had. The father said you really don’t need to do it this year. He did anyways.
They cancelled the Polar Bear event last weekend for I believe it was Madison.
They have a international kite flying event on one of the lakes.Kites On Ice.
It would appear that cold weather affects one’s sanity. 
mangeorge
Something I love about winter lakes is kite tele-skiing. Wheeeeee!!!