I seriously doubt that ‘cold’ for Doobieous is the same as ‘cold’ for me. I shiver just thinking about it…I hate winter, I hate snow, and I hate cold!
I just paid $480 to buy about a third or the heating oil I will use this winter, and had the winter tires put on the car yesterday.
Hrumph! I hate winter!
Oh, and being short & squat doesnt help. (Yes thats right! I am not a scrawny little thing!I am short and squat and I look like tweetie bird- big round cheeks, and a widdle pouty mouth, and I am damn cuddly too!)
Keli: Of course cold for me is not the same as cold for you (that’s why i added that in there :)). This is California after all. The only places in California that get significantly low temps in winter is the high sierra nevadas (think Donner Party :)). Oh and New Mexico believe it or not gets snow in winter, so if you hate that…
‘The beginning calls for courage; the end demands care’
You think you’re bad…I was in ATLANTA a few days ago on business and I walked out of my hotel room at night and was freezing my ass off. I got in the car and had to blast on the heat to help me stop shivering. It was probably somewhere around 60-65 degrees, and yes, I felt like a wimp. But then again, I’m from South Florida, so that IS cold for us.
The thing that sucks though is that I hate extreme heat also. If it’s anywhere above 90 degrees I try to stay indoors in the nice comfy A/C. I guess that means that my temperature range is about 25 degrees, anywhere from 65 to 90 degrees is ok by me. Now do you see why I live in South Florida?!? Only occasionally does the temperature leave my comfort zone.
The thing that gets me is not cold (I’m fine at -25C with the proper clothing) but that kind of nasty wet fall weather when it’s a couple of degrees above freezing and windy and the rain slashes you in the face no matter what you do…
I also find heat (anything above 30C) with high humidity to be unpleasant. Occaisionally here in Southern Ontario we get dry warm days in midsummer with 30-degree temperatures but low humidity. I find these very pleasant.
That being said, I suspect that proper clothing is far more important to winter comfort than acclimatisation. People in Toronto do not truly dress for winter; they are so used to traveling from heated building to heated vehicle to heated building. And they want to dress for (fashion) success, which generally results in outfits that are totally impractical for serious winter use.
You don’t see many Sorels at the opera, although if I ever went to the opera, I’d probably make the attempt.
Thinking about the one poster’s perception of 65F as ‘cold’, I’m reminded of the news reports last spring when we had an abnormal warm spell… 10C. Hordes of people were out in the parks, jogging in shorts along the boardwalk, even sunbathing. They were like flowers opening to the sun. Warmth… after the long winter.
You do have a point. Last Jan.when it was 10 one day,the next time it went up to 32,it seemed not quite so bad. The thing thats always got me was;when it is 50 in July,it feels cold,but 50 degrees in January feels warm!
Warm weather, definitely. I live in San Francisco and everyone thinks I’m nuts because I hate the weather here (well this time of year it’s nice, but for the other eleven months - hell no). I especially hate the fact that even when it’s nice during the day it’s almost always cold at night. I grew up in DC and one of the things I miss most about it is wearing shorts at night. You freeze doing that here.
My sister’s even worse though. She wants to move to Arizona for the weather.
And, if it matters, I’m short with a relatively fast metabolism and Scottish-Spanish heritage.
Woo hoo. I finally stumble onto a question I know something about. Three words: adipose brown tissue. Saw a show on the topic a few years ago (Nova, maybe - it certainly wasn’t a junk science show) that directly addressed the question. I did a web search and Google returned 1322 hits. Most of them were arcane medical journals and the rest appeared to be new miracle diets. There was, however, enough detail to confirm my recollections from the show.
Adipose brown tissue (or brown adipose tissue; aka BAT) is a naturally occurring fat in the body, that’s … brown. Its main function is heat generation and regulation. The way you react to cold is based on the amount and efficiency of BAT in your body.
Our response to cold is multifaceted - there’s a genetic component; since we’re all born with a different amount or distribution of the stuff. There’s an age component; the process gets less efficient as we age. There’s an acclimatizaion component: you tend to bulk up the BAT supplies over the winter (because you need them) and then lose them again the next summer ('cause you don’t).
We get real winters here - minus 20 C is not unusual (that would be minus 20 F, BTW). The other night, it got to minus 6 C here and it felt cold as, well, you know. I know for a fact that when it gets to minus 6 in March, we’ll be out in our shorts and t-shirts enjoying the balmy weather. Price you pay to get real seasons, I guess.
Anyway, if someone could explain the BAT experiment where they hung the rats by their hind limbs to simulate zero gravity, I’d really appreciate it …