frostbitten

I keep promising not to write about the weather and I keep breaking that promise. But leeann gave me the exclusive authority to write about the weather for arrival gate since Chicago's is slightly more extreme than Boston's and today, the coldest day Chicago has felt in over a decade, I am well within my rights to write about it. It's -8 F as I write, according to the Weather Channel.

The news is full of advice. A woman from Maine quoted in the New York Times recommends just going to work and going home; not making any unnecessary stops and spending as much time during the commute as possible in one's car. The Chicago Tribune gets advice from Fargo, North Dakota, whose residents say simply to dress warmly and in layers (even though by their standards, Chicago isn't really that cold). Another article, that focuses on why the hell Chicagoans choose to live in this (as some say) "frozen, inhospitable, arctic hellhole of a city," says Santa Barbara is probably the best place in the country to live because "they have beautiful weather all year round." Maybe i'm being a little too specific here, but I think actually coastal San Diego has better weather than Santa Barbara. I have, after all, lived in both places. And my family always insisted that it was cold up north in Santa Barbara. The Chicago Sun-Times apparently has better things to write about than the weather (I do not)--they reprinted the NYT article--but they focused on Chicago not actually being cold, but Pollock, South Dakota taking the cake at -47 F. A technicality, really. Not that you've seen me leave my house today. But as they all say, I don't really have a reason to, so I've chosen not to go anywhere til later.

That was really all a setup for me to give my two cents. My tip for the cold? Besides long johns and wool socks and all that jazz? Three letters: TEA. Tea is the most wonderful and the most complete form of warmth available in the winter, and even though it's transitory, cup after cup after cup will do the job quite nicely. And it won't over-caffeinate, though a little bit of caffeine may be a good way to combat the dead-of-winter blues.

The picture, by the way, is the view of -8 F from my window (in the words of Andrew Sullivan). Doesn't look like much besides snow. I live in a garden apartment. But just to be extra ironic and spiteful, it was of course sunny and cloudless today even as it was causing frostbite.