Being very cold

[Mortblanc]

The weak points in almost any system will be the feet and hands.

The extremities are naturally going to get cold when the body core does not. One can wrap in almost anything and keep the trunk, arms and legs comfortable but the exposure to the hands and feet directly to the snow/ice ad bitter temps when they do not get adequate blood flow while sitting in a cool room makes them the most difficult spots to keep warm.

I finally found a solution for the hands when I discovered snowmobile gloves. They are thick, well insulated and made to buck wind chill. With a pair of thin cotton gloves under them I have never had cold hands. As with any other effective hand covering, they must be removed to do any detail work so that is always an issue. It only requires one to touch a piece of metal at -30 to achieve almost instant frostbite. Be carefull out there.

Protection of the feet I have found requires spending some money. Very few cheap alternatives truly work when dealing with footwear. My latest choices, over-sized canoe boots with 3/4" felt liners, thick wool socks over thing cotton socks have worked well for what I have used them for, which is just chores around the house. I have not walked in them for miles, waded frozen swamps while duck hunting or stood stationary for hours in deep snow while deer hunting.

Neither have they been used in the very deep snows common to this area. They have only 8" tops and we often get snows deeper than that. I have knee high Wellingtons I keep for that use but lately my coping method has been to look out the widow and mumbles something about "not today!".

There was a time when I looked out, got dressed and shoveled whatever amount of snow covered the driveway to the street so the vehicles could get out. Both the wife and I had those jobs there we were required to be present, no excuses. Snow meant a couple of hours work so you could get to the job, which meant one was in the cold and could not leave that situation.

I still remember one morning standing with the snow shovel in hand and pressing the button on the garage door opener. As the door rolled up I saw snow, then more snow, then more snow! A drift was piled against the garage that was 5 feet deep and the even ground cover was 2 1/2 feet.

My wife immediately stole my Jeep for her run to the hospital and left me to dig out the little Ford Escort estate wagon.

I was late to work that day. I also got a bit cold too.