Jan 06 2009
in which cold weather makes people behave oddly
Actually it’s not so much what people are doing differently in the cold, it’s what they’re not doing differently, if that makes any sense. I mean, yes, Alaska in general is kind of cold, and Alaska during the winter is always cold, compared to most other places, so yes, we tend to get maybe a little more used to it than others, which sort of explains the people who are still wearing flip-flops in January.
Well, we’ve had an intense cold snap for the last couple weeks where it’s barely gone above zero. Right now it’s -18°. That’s cold. (On the plus side, it’s not really windy, which it always was when it hit this temperature, or significantly below it, in Barrow where I lived for five years. But that’s another story altogether.) One would imagine people would bundle up, right? Right. I wear a sweater, heavy coat, hat, thick gloves, and scarf every time I go outside, even if it’s just to drive somewhere (my car does take a while to warm up, of course).
So here is what I do not understand: I keep seeing people at bus stops, both schoolkids and adults who should know better, with their coats unzipped, hoods up because they aren’t wearing a hat, hands in pockets because they aren’t wearing gloves or mittens, standing there in the insanely bitter cold, shivering. And don’t try to tell me they can’t afford better stuff. Anyone can afford a semi-decent hat and gloves, and anyone who’s already wearing a coat can zip the gorram thing up.
People are weird, I don’t know.
