Winter is a good time for doing inside-work, both inside the house, and inside your own mind. Today, this was especially true, as we had a dose of cold-for-Boston weather, which kept people scurrying between buildings, cars, and the holes in the ground where the subway lives.
In spite of this, there wasn't too much time for self-pity, when my boss mentioned that it was -20 where we used to live. Our coldest weather here was still nearly 40 degrees warmer than there.
This made me think a lot about how we have no idea about some of the consequences of our decisions. We didn't know that by moving here when we did that we would avoid two very cold winters, or that it would be possible (almost) to avoid the cold altogether by virtue of having the subway right beneath our feet and other amenities so close by.
It's funny how the cold affects your outlook. It takes mental effort to gear up to run errands, to extend yourself, to relax. This is never the case in the summer. Your mind chills along with your body and they both go into hibernation during the winter.
So, to help ward off winter's mental squeeze, here are some Hausmeister-certified fixes for cold weather:
- Sledding at the Sugar Bowl - 40+ kids sledding on a bowl-shaped hill
Just bring an extra pair of gloves, a helmet for the little one, and some coffee so you can keep warm while you talk to the rest of the parents standing at the top of the hill while your kids cream each other at the bottom.
- The Museum of Science - because the dinosaurs and "space-rocketships" never get old
This works best if you can stagger your day by about 4 hours. When everyone else eats, you should hit the exhibits, and vice versa. Also, if your kid wets themselves badly, the hand dryers in the downstairs bathrooms are NOT warm enough to undo the damage. Mrs. H also finds the butterfly exhibit with 80 degree weather and 95% humidity to be like a cheap vacation. Mr. H thinks cheap is the name of the game.
- Watching for "lebendigen Waschschlappen" and their owners - tiny dogs being walked by frozen people on cold days
This is always good for a laugh. There's just something funny about very cold and uncomfortable people standing outside with their tiny dogs, their hand in a plastic bag, waiting to pick up hot, steaming poop first thing in the morning. The look on their faces is of a certain type of misery that has to be seen to be believed. By the way, a "lebendigen Waschschlappen" is a "living washcloth", my uncle's name for these dogs.
- A Christmas cookies potluck with people and kids you don't know
Everyone involved brings either cookies or decorating items. It's an epic amount of sugar in multiple forms, a lot of fun, and involved some great people and really good fried chicken (who knew that was part of the deal?). Just don't sneeze in the frosting!
- Travel - just getting away is nice, too
We spent Christmas with family, lots and lots of family, for my grandmother's memorial service, and had a wonderful time seeing relatives and getting caught up again. This will probably show up in its own post soon.
So, that's the Hausmeister way of dealing with the cold this winter. If you have any suggestions, feel free to add them to the comments. I've been lax in posting, but hope to get a few more up in the next few days. It's been bats-in-the-belfry crazy since returning from Christmas vacation.
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