Body Heat

Photo Credit: Mitsi Krzywicki

Even though the last half block is a bit harrowing, I've been walking the whole way to work most days this week. The temperature, with the wind chill, has been in the minus twenty five to minus thirty range. The walk is just under two kilometres, takes about fifteen to twenty minutes and, according to the government of Canada, poses a moderate risk that I'll freeze my nose off.

I dress warmly of course and have noted every day as I've walked over the freeze-dried sidewalks and crunching snow that it's not the clothes that keep me warm. I keep me warm. The clothes just make it easier. 

There's nothing like extreme cold to make you very aware of, grateful for and amazed by your own body heat. Without doubt the body takes some measure of what the conditions are and adjusts accordingly. When the cold snap began, I could not keep my hands warm in my gloves. By Friday this week, my hands were keeping themselves warm just fine.

How cool is that?

Why I Love Working at the Ministry of the Environment

On Thursday this week while I was on a teleconference with some people out at our science lab, one of them mentioned there was a sun dog in the sky. From where I was inside a monolithic wing of the Queen's Park complex, I couldn't see it at that time. 

But later that day, as the sun settled in the west, our intern came up to a bunch of us and said, "You can see the sun dog now." Then, as one, ten serious, highly-trained professionals, most of them with multiple university degrees, jumped from their desks to go to the window and see the rainbow colours of light reflected off of ice particles in the sky.

Molly's post this week is another meditation on winter.

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen