Sunshine
posted in Alaska |We have had beautiful, clear, sparkling sunny days for the past week. The clouds have moved away, the sun is out, and it makes me happy.
It also makes it very, very cold.
Very.
Right now, at 9 a.m., it’s 22 below zero. For the past few days, the high for the day has been either zero Fahrenheit or 1 degree.
But it’s sunny! And we’re up to almost eight hours of daylight per day! And we went out to dinner last night leaving at 6 p.m., and there was still a trace of red and maroon right at the horizon! And we’re gaining almost eight minutes of light per day!
But, dayum, it’s cold.
I said to someone on a board or list that I’ve gotten to the point that when it’s zero out, my mind says, "Hunh! It’s kind of warm today!" She laughed and said that meant I was becoming a true Alaskan. I really think it’s my 27 years of growing up in Chicago and dealing with Chicago winters. For those who wonder, yes, you can become accustomed to lots of things, so long as you get a steady taste of it, and I actually think that it’s easier to get used to extremely cold weather than it is to get used to extremely hot weather–especially extremely hot, humid weather. After all, you can always layer more clothes on, but once you’ve stripped down to a bikini, you’ve pretty much reached the limit of "adjustment" that can be made.
The dotter, a few nights ago, wanted to know how come it gets cold in the wintertime. The problem with these questions she asks is that she’s asking them when she’s snuggled up in bed, "ready" to go to sleep, so it’s fairly obvious that these questions are a last gasp attempt to stay awake. A question like this, though, requires demonstration and discussion, so I promised her I’d find something on the internet to explain it (after a lame attempt using my fists).
(I mean–look, it’s hard to jerk your brain out of the "keep the child quiet, keep the voice low, it’s snoozing time" mode to answer, say, "How do you make plywood?" You give the child a quick explanation, but it’s not enough, she wants more, more, more! So I am beginning to collect a fine set of links…)
The cold is frustrating, I admit. Looking out the window, we have a beautiful sunny day. We have lots of snow. I wist after sledding or skiing or just going out and playing in the snow. But that cold is a bit too cold for such frolicking. So we look out, enjoy the growing sunlight, and wait for a day that is (a) sunny, (b) between 0 and 32F, and (c) on the weekend.
We’ll get some sooner or later!
