In the military it was common knowledge that lots of folks really, really wanted to take leave over the Holidays. Absent a war commanders loved to give out holiday leave to their key people, the real hard chargers. It was one of the few benefits they really controlled.
The smarter folks figured out pretty quickly that because so many key people were away most useful work ended around 15Dec and didn’t resume until about 5Jan. So by *not *taking leave then you could pretty much blow off actual effort the whole time and just hang around until noon each day then go home.
Then you take leave in Jan just *after *everybody gets back and is crazy flailing to catch up and to get the New Year off right. Meanwhile you’re elsewhere. By late Jan they’re all caught up, you’re well rested, and things at work are back to the normal grind. So *then *you return from leave. And not a day before.
The -43C isn’t the actual temperature, just the wind chill. And no prediction, that was the actual conditions this morning when I left Regina to drive back to Saskatoon. Actual temperature was a mere -32C. Still took till Craik before I turned the heater fan down from the highest setting.
However, you’re in luck. The temperature’s supposed to break tomorrow, heading all the way up to -10, with the rest of the long-range forecast floating in single digits. Shouldn’t be any huge shock to your systems.
In February 1998 I witnessed a glorious solar eclipse on the island of Guadeloupe, and spent a few days in the nearby island of Martinique. That same week my husband was on a business trip to Southeast Asia. We both returned to a brutal winter storm. It was worth it.
Every other year we like to go away, usually for Dec + Jan. And our favorite destination is usually somewhere in SEAsia. After a couple of months you get really acclimated to the tropical temps. Returning to our home city, end of Jan, (in the middle if the snow belt) often isn’t pretty. We’ve returned to awful ice storms, closed highways even polar vortex. (You know it’s cold in Canada when you’re hearing about it on some quiet little island without roads, on the Andaman sea! Yipes!)
Yes, it can be a rough transition. I barely leave my house for a few weeks, going into full hibernation mode! But I adjust, eventually. (Sometimes I think the hard part is everyone cracking wise, “What the matter? You cold?”, when I’m quite obviously freezing!)
But since I have a wicked tan and two LESS months of winter to face, I definitely think it’s worth the pain of reentry.
( When I first started travelling this part of the world, 30 yrs ago, I ALWAYS timed my vacations so I’d be returning in spring or summer. I really didn’t think I could face a tropic to frigid transition. But back then, we were travelling for many months at a time, so it made more sense. Now Dec/Jan makes sense for hubby’s job, so that’s when we go, even though it means returning for the hardest part of winter.)
We’ve left Merrylande for FL many times to spend Christmas with my husband’s family and we’re always glad to get home, but that has nothing to do with the weather. Don’t get me wrong - his folks are nice people, but we both really hate Florida after living there for a couple of decades.
One year, we did a Caribbean cruise out of Baltimore in January and it was nice, but unlike my mom and sister, we don’t want to do it every year. Then again, our winters really aren’t all that awful all the time. Having said that, I expect we’ll be blizzarded in now for the entirety of January and February…
I love, love, LOVE winter, but it’s a nice break from the cold when we do our annual January family visit in Tucson (Arizona). I do enjoy lounging in the backyard and going hiking in shorts, but I’m always ready to return to my cold a week later.
We typically take a 10-day Caribbean cruise in February, leaving the great north behind. It’s quite a shock to the system both going and returning, but as others have said, totally worth it.
I take at least 3 or 4 extra days off between arriving back home and before returning to work; I think that helps.
mmm
