ANOTHER RECORD! at 1°F

370 words; 3 pictures
A NEW RECORD!!  I was totally surprised.  I consciously recognized the fact that I slowed down the last three steps—probably costing me a couple tenths of a second.  I wore two layers of gloves—one a thin, black, cotton pair; on the outside, my purple fleece gloves.  My hands were definitely the coldest part of the body—ears were cold, too.

     Regular readers might notice that I have not been doing a lot of pull-ups and such lately.  I don’t feel like it…I think because I don’t want to stay in one place for long.  I want to keep moving so the blood keeps pumping.

I haven’t been this cold for 28 years—since high school.  Even Kazakhstan didn’t seem to be this cold.  I need to find a leather pair of gloves and a scarf.  There are sekond khahnd (second hand) shops around.
Here’s a picture of me after the run.  Tima, the cat, is on my shoulder.  The white in my beard may be frost, but it is probably grey hair.

Walking around, the cold is amazing.  My glasses get so cold that they almost freeze to my head, and my jaw starts to get sore.  I love to experience new things, and I guess after 28 years, this seems new.  Working on the farm, I wrote, in my head, an original poem:

My toes and my nose are froze.

Now the nose is definitely froze, but the toes are not yet.  Obviously, I was colder all those years ago because after coming inside, as they thawed, my fingers and toes would swell up and then start to sting as the warm blood began to move into the area.  I have not experienced that feeling here, yet.  I imagine that if I get lost walking home, I might…that’s why I always carry a map.

I washed some clothes yesterday and my flat mate hung them in the porch to dry.  Today, they are frozen.  In the pics below, you can see the frost on the Des Moines Ultimate Frisbee league shirt, and you can see a sock standing straight up.

I learned from Click and Clack the car guys that an air conditioner ‘cools’ the air by taking the moisture out of it.  I certainly see how cold air is dry.  I recognize very much that the air is quite dry out there.  Today, I ran with not only a short-sleeved t-shirt, but also a thin-ish turtle-neck and I didn’t sweat.