Killing Cold
Jan. 15th, 2020 09:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greenstormI don't want you to misunderstand me: most cold incidents happen right around freezing, when people get wet and then their clothes no longer function properly. We treat that sort of weather with a little more contempt, and our carelessness costs us.
But.
It's -40 here. That's where the streams cross, where Celsius and Fahrenheit meet. It feels perilous in my bones, at least whenever I'm not sitting home next to a really big pile of firewood and my woodstove.
It's not instant frostbite weather unless you're wet, and it's relatively hard to get wet at this temperature. I can go outside and do chores with single-layer work gloves and get cold fingers and my cheeks burn, but it doesn't damage me.
It's a little that nothing *works* in this weather. Batteries fail, so vehicles and flashlights and phones don't have juice to start or run. Tucker's little car won't start, and my 4runner with a brand new battery takes a bit. More concerning, my brakes don't really work; I get the feeling my brake fluid is, well, not super fluid in there and I really have to mash the pedal to have an effect. Normally my lights turn off when I use the fob to lock my doors, but they don't in the cold.
It's a little that the inside walls of my house get real cold and the inside of my windows and dog door ice over. The humidity drops below 10% (which is the tolerance of my equipment) because any humidity freezes immediately to the windows.
If you're dressed right and your car breaks down in cell signal (there isn't a ton of cell signal up here) you'll be fine. If you're in an accident, your car stops heating, and you are upside down or stuck in your car and can't think quickly to get help? You're dead.
Waterlines become an issue. My outside tap freezes around -25 or so.
Muscovies start to get frostbite on their feet around -25 too. If I don't manage them very well and carefully I have to cull.
The ground sounds like Styrofoam. Ice becomes like very solid rock, not really breakable or stompable anymore.
The laws of physics just seem different, and my body instinctively feels afraid. These are the days I don't think humans belong in outer space, it's just too cold. Maybe we don't even belong this far north.
A week of this, then it warms up, and maybe a couple more weeks of it this winter. Wish me luck.
But.
It's -40 here. That's where the streams cross, where Celsius and Fahrenheit meet. It feels perilous in my bones, at least whenever I'm not sitting home next to a really big pile of firewood and my woodstove.
It's not instant frostbite weather unless you're wet, and it's relatively hard to get wet at this temperature. I can go outside and do chores with single-layer work gloves and get cold fingers and my cheeks burn, but it doesn't damage me.
It's a little that nothing *works* in this weather. Batteries fail, so vehicles and flashlights and phones don't have juice to start or run. Tucker's little car won't start, and my 4runner with a brand new battery takes a bit. More concerning, my brakes don't really work; I get the feeling my brake fluid is, well, not super fluid in there and I really have to mash the pedal to have an effect. Normally my lights turn off when I use the fob to lock my doors, but they don't in the cold.
It's a little that the inside walls of my house get real cold and the inside of my windows and dog door ice over. The humidity drops below 10% (which is the tolerance of my equipment) because any humidity freezes immediately to the windows.
If you're dressed right and your car breaks down in cell signal (there isn't a ton of cell signal up here) you'll be fine. If you're in an accident, your car stops heating, and you are upside down or stuck in your car and can't think quickly to get help? You're dead.
Waterlines become an issue. My outside tap freezes around -25 or so.
Muscovies start to get frostbite on their feet around -25 too. If I don't manage them very well and carefully I have to cull.
The ground sounds like Styrofoam. Ice becomes like very solid rock, not really breakable or stompable anymore.
The laws of physics just seem different, and my body instinctively feels afraid. These are the days I don't think humans belong in outer space, it's just too cold. Maybe we don't even belong this far north.
A week of this, then it warms up, and maybe a couple more weeks of it this winter. Wish me luck.
