Cold is relative. Two weeks of temperatures below zero and 30º will seem warm enough to build a snowfort without a shirt. You'll find people sunning themselves outside ice fishing shacks with metallic arrays under their chins. On the flip side, after a week in July with temps near 100º a 62º night gets the neighbors turning on the furnace and looking for their cuddleduds.
It was cold today and it will stay cold for the next 5 or 6 days. Driving home from work I was looking at the trees and remembered a novel by Gary Paulsen that I read to my fourth graders in years past called "Brian's Winter." In the book the character, Brian Robeson, has survived a plane crash in early summer in the Canadian wilderness. He is able to adapt to life in the woods gradually. One extremely cold winter night he is lying in his shelter by the fire when he is woken by the sounds of what he thinks are gun shots. The next day he goes out looking for the source of the noise only to be nearly killed when a maple tree explodes expelling splinters like shrapnel.
It wasn't quite that cold today though.
Animals don't seem to be affected too much by it. On the farm the cows huddle together out of the wind or will find a bit of sun to lay in. They seem extra furry on these days. The bangs of fur on their foreheads curl into a bushy mass that The Donald would kill for.
I've got neighbors that like the cold. They run their air conditioner constantly throughout the summer. It came on in late April (I kid you not) and didn't go off until November. The really hot days we had last July must have shortened it's life by 10 years. I expect the Lennox people will be out to replace it this summer with some industrial rated unit used in cyrogenic labs.
In truth, I don't mind the cold too much. As long as the furnace works and my trees don't explode.
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