On the subject of breathing in cold air: Neil Gaiman, who for those who don’t know him is an English writer who has lived in Wisconsin and Minnesota off and on since the late '80s (mostly on), was on Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me recently and was asked about his initial reaction to the midwestern winters. He said initially he had an arrogance about it: “I’ve lived in London and vacationed in northern England and Scotland in some of the coldest winters on record, I’m equipped for this”, but the first time he said until he went outside in sub-zero temperature he didn’t realize that it could could get cold enough that just inhaling could be painful. He came close to cashing in his chips and moving to a warmer climate his first few winters, but now has chosen to bear it out. (I’m still not sure why a wealthy foreigner who has no roots there and could afford to live there would live in a place with the harshest winters in the U.S., though he did say in interviews he owns a vacation house in Florida and travels a good bit during blizzard season to get a break from it.)
I remember studying (through readings and films- not observation) traditional Eskimo/Inuit who built honest-to-Og igloos from a long ago anthropology class and how ingenious a structure the igloo was/is. (My professor said that today anybody who lives in an igloo is more apt to be an anthropologist or an ice adventurer than an Inuit, most of whom have more modern winter quarters in small towns.) The dome shape of the igloo came into being because of the way the harshest winds skirt over it and the near impossibility of collapsing it, and on the interior even without a fire the temperature is usually slightly above freezing regardless of what’s going on outside, so with a small fire going it was fairly easy to get the interior temperature to 60 F or so without having to worry about melting the walls, a very bearable temperature with just light clothing. Eskimo/Inuit also essentially invented (probably not the original inventors, but at least independently) the drawstring leather sweatpants and ensuring there were no holes, however tiny in it, was the wife’s Number 1 responsibility, and so the traditional Eskimo garment was surprisingly lightweight, especially when compeared to the the huge bundles worn by Russian and North American explorers.
And don’t underestimate just how quickly frostbite can set in. I gew up in a cold climate (Chicago area), and once in high school I got locked out of the house late one night after a babysitting job. I hadn’t brought a hat, because I thought I would just be running from the client’s car to the house, but the key froze in the lock, and my pounding on the door didn’t wake anyone up. By the time I got to a friend’s house half a mile away (he was having a party that night, so I knew people would be awake), my ears had literally blistered.
I have a jetta with heated seats. I will commonly have to go somewhere, and I detest being hot and sweaty so I tend to carry my jacket out to the car, turn on the seat and be toasty warm while the heater heats up. If like this past weekend we are on a road trip, I will not bother putting on my jacket while gimping in to pee - I park in gimp parking which is close to the entrance of said rest area building. In case of emergency I do have my jacket in the car, and it is not unusual for us to have surplus ‘pumpkin suits’ in the trunk just in case of trouble and needing serious protection. Anything rated for the antarctic laughs at weather in New England
? I normally wear jeans and a tshirt [well, also underwear:D] What leather suit? And the arctic survival suit is some sort of artificial fiber filled with some other unnatural fiber, and only worn if we have to leave the car and walk somewhere in blizzard conditions. Otherwise I just put on a jacket.
Honestly, going from a heated building to a heated building, all I need is a toasty warm seat to keep me warm until the heat in the car starts up. Although our old 74 beetle had sort of dodgy heat in winter, but that was a problem with the old VWs.
aruvqan I’m sorry, I was making an oblique Pulp Fiction reference (I’d past a YouTube link to the scene but can’t view videos at my desk). I think there was a thread here not too long ago asking how ‘gimp’ became associated with the suit and if it came from PF–that’s the only place I know it from.
BTW, what does “gimping in to pee - I park in gimp parking” mean? Regionalism?
Not all syndromes and maladies are caused by germs. Hangovers, for instance, look just like a mild stomach flu and dehydration, but there aren’t any viruses responsible. Rhabdomyolysis has symptoms of “nausea, vomiting, confusion, coma or abnormal heart rate and rhythm,” according to wiki.
It’s possible that cold stress can similarly mimic the flu when there’s no actual germ present. Someone goes outside for a long period of time, and the next day, they feel run down and stuffy-headed. They wrap a blanket around them and announce “I’ve got a cold” when really they’re just feeling the after-effects of the weather, and it’s not a cold at all.
IIRC, aruvqan is handicapped. So, it sounds like she’s parking in the handicapped parking space (“gimp parking”, which would be close to the door), then limping the short distance inside to go to the restroom.
An interesting question…and the effects probably relate to whether or not the individual actually feels cold.
Lots of people don’t feel the cold, especially kids, who often run around mid-winter in t-shirts. But kids will tell you when they are feeling cold and do something about it (or expect you to!)
Probably a major contribution to the folklore that being exposed to cold temperatures causes you to catch “a cold” is the fact that one of the first symptoms of getting a cold is feeling chilly, independent of ambient temperature.
