Saturday, January 17, 2009

Gobsmacked by the cold!

For those of you who do not know the meaning of "Gobsmacked" it’s something that leaves you speechless, or otherwise stops you dead in your tracks. While I wasn't exactly speechless, I was certainly dead in my tracks yesterday when the midday temperature barely made it to 24F degrees.

I am like a lizard when it comes to cold weather, my body just shuts down and concentrates on trying to survive. I had a lot of work I had planned to do yesterday on my medical society project, but my hands were so cold I couldn't control the mouse on my computer, let alone type with any accuracy, so wrapped in many layers of sweaters, long johns, shawls, plush throws and two live hot water bottles named Bella and Fred, I sat in my comfy chair and read all day long. Thanks be for my Kindle, because I read 2 1/2 books on it with only one finger exposed to press the page forward button!

I have aways been a hot house plant. My first tour in the Foreign Service was in Korea. I arrived there in February on a bright sunny day and was hit with 18 degree weather at noon. I had experienced some cold weather in the four previous years in Washington DC but I was not prepared either emotionally or wardrobely (sic) for long days of very cold weather.

I tried to avoid cold places after that with pretty good success although I did spend a winter in London that was called the coldest winter since 1947 when we had frozen snow and ice on the streets over over two weeks. But other than that I spent most of my career in places with wonderfully mild to warm weather, i.e., Nigeria, Taiwan, Damascus, Colombia, Costa Rica and El Salvador.

The good news about yesterday's weather is that sometime during the night the winds switched to the south and it started getting warmer. It was 34 degrees when I got up this morning and we are forecast to have a high today in the high 50s, something I can live with.

So out of hibernation and back to work today.

1 comment:

Janna Barber said...

I actually put a glove on my right hand yesterday, so I could continue my clicking in comfort!