On tolerating cold while living in Chicago
For the past few days, Chicago weather forecasters public officials have been issuing increasingly dire warnings about the Arctic winds that are scheduled to hit our fairly Windy Windy city on Wednesday. How it plays out remains to be seen. Sometimes, those warnings get overblown, sometimes they're more on the money than not. Ultimately, as my mom likes to say, we must hope for the best and prepare for the worst.
Whatever happens... It got me thinking about how my ability to tolerate cold changed over the years.
I've written before, here and elsewhere, about my first summer in these United States. The weather felt unbearably dry and hot, the air humid and muggy. But over the next few years, my organism adjusted. 80+ (Fahrenheit) weather still feels hot, but not unbearably so.
When I moved out to Chicago back in 2012, I moved from a house with central heat and air conditioning to a studio apartment with old-school radiators (the kind I used to see a lot when I was growing up in Russia). And my first winter in that apartment was way colder than what I've gotten used to. It turned out that the radiators only kicked in when the overall temperature inside the building dropped to a certain point - which is a problem with the wind blows through the gaps in the window frames. So there were a lot of nights when my apartment felt pretty cold, and so did the radiators.
But over time... Honestly, I don't know if this is just because the company that owned the building took heating more seriously or I had legitimately built up tolerance, but the winter nights don't feel so cold anymore. Even outside the apartment... I've joked for a long time that my mom is too sensitive to cold, and when she said something is cold, I mentally add 10 degrees, but it does start to feel like some of the temperatures that used to bother me don't bother me as much.
Now, the last time the Polar Vortex hit, I had to bundle up pretty thoroughly - multiple layers, scarf over face, two layers of socks - even with my greater toleration. And there were times, during especially chilly winter days, when I went to the library, or a local coffee shop, just because it was warmer than it home.
We'll see how it pans out this time around.
Whatever happens... It got me thinking about how my ability to tolerate cold changed over the years.
I've written before, here and elsewhere, about my first summer in these United States. The weather felt unbearably dry and hot, the air humid and muggy. But over the next few years, my organism adjusted. 80+ (Fahrenheit) weather still feels hot, but not unbearably so.
When I moved out to Chicago back in 2012, I moved from a house with central heat and air conditioning to a studio apartment with old-school radiators (the kind I used to see a lot when I was growing up in Russia). And my first winter in that apartment was way colder than what I've gotten used to. It turned out that the radiators only kicked in when the overall temperature inside the building dropped to a certain point - which is a problem with the wind blows through the gaps in the window frames. So there were a lot of nights when my apartment felt pretty cold, and so did the radiators.
But over time... Honestly, I don't know if this is just because the company that owned the building took heating more seriously or I had legitimately built up tolerance, but the winter nights don't feel so cold anymore. Even outside the apartment... I've joked for a long time that my mom is too sensitive to cold, and when she said something is cold, I mentally add 10 degrees, but it does start to feel like some of the temperatures that used to bother me don't bother me as much.
Now, the last time the Polar Vortex hit, I had to bundle up pretty thoroughly - multiple layers, scarf over face, two layers of socks - even with my greater toleration. And there were times, during especially chilly winter days, when I went to the library, or a local coffee shop, just because it was warmer than it home.
We'll see how it pans out this time around.