Chicago Weblog

I raked up the leaves in the front yard this morning for what I hope is the last time this season.  It was sixteen degrees, less whatever windchill factor there was.  And it really wasn’t that bad.

Last week, I left work to go for a jog in the park.  It was forty-three degrees, and I remember thinking to myself that it was actually rather pleasant outside.  This is from a man who, when living in Houston, considered forty-five degrees to be pretty much the limit of human endurance.

I’m not sure if I’m getting tougher or softer.

After my earlier post about Kroger shoppers who apparently have difficulty detecting cold, I came across this video of some really cold people.

Yesterday afternoon it got up to thirty-eight degrees outside, so I decided to go for a jog in the park on the way home.  There were a few other joggers and runners there, as well as the usual number of dog walkers.  Everyone was reasonably attired for the weather: gloves, tights or sweats, hats (except for some young women runners who had very thick hair), and so on.

This morning I went to the Kroger to pick up a couple of items.  It was twenty degrees.  There is a big difference between thirty-eight degrees and twenty degrees.  The parking lot was relatively empty when I got to the store; most of the usual Saturday morning crowd was clearly staying home.  But the strange thing was how the people who were there were dressed.  Mostly sweatshirts and windbreakers.  The only hat I saw was a baseball cap, and the only gloves were on an elderly man who had probably just put them on out of habit.  These people are clearly insufficiently dressed for the conditions.  I can only conclude that something was preventing them from properly feeling the cold, and that they really should get that looked at.

This afternoon I spent about twenty minutes determining what I have to wear to jog in thirty-six degree weather.  The answer was: somewhat more than what I had put on.

I had a picture here of me with a beanie, a canary-yellow cycling jacket over a royal blue long-sleeve technical, cardinal red shorts over black tights, and size fifteen blue and white running shoes.  But apparently this violated the ISP’s terms of agreement.

The last couple of weekends have been warm and sunny (highs in the sixties), which is considered rather unusual for mid-November in this part of the country.  I have a Louisville gardener’s almanac by Fred Wiche, considered by many to be the dean of Louisville gardeners.  This book was published in the early ’80’s, and I’m sure it was based on his experiences in the area during the sixties and seventies.  The chapter on November says that we should have gotten our first snowfall last week.

I’m not complaining.  I picked peppers out of the garden for tonight’s support.