Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!!

For those of you not following international news, I'll update you. In Moscow, over 50 people have died due to freezing weather. Most of these people live in areas that had power failures or heating-loss. In other areas, utility providers can't produce enough heat to adequetly alleviate this problem. Guess who lives about 8 hours from Moscow?........me, your's truly. Though we've been more fortunate than Moscow, and we have the balmy Gulf of Finland to help regulate temperatures, it's been absolutley freezing here for about a week. The coldest reading I saw was -17C feeling like -27C....that's about -17F. Even the Estonians won't go outside.

To those of you who have never experienced this meteorilogical phenomen, here's a short anecdote: I was walking from my apartment to the Music Academy. At my usual pace this is about a five minute walk, in the cold, I can cut it down to about 3:45. At about the halfway point, I started to feel something rigid inside my nose when I inhaled, like somebody had put a small stint up there. After careful self-evaluation, I discovered that it was my snot freezing as I inhaled the frigid air. When someone asks me how cold it gets here, my new answer will be, "cold enough that your snot freezes after about a minute and a half". The only plus side to this strange-new experience is that unlike normal cold temperatures, you're not constantly afflicted with the sniffles. I imagine that prolonged deep freezes really hurt kleenex sales.

The downside to this nostral novelty is that approximatley three minutes after one gets inside (the ratio is about two times as long as the freezing takes; y =2x), a spring thaw begins. You have to be adequatley prepared for this moment, because you will never cease to be amazed at the quantity of fluid now leaking from your face. The nose recieves attention first, of course, however then your shortly begin to realize that your cheeks are wet from the ice-crystals melting around your eyes and the corners of your mouth. My friends who wear glasses have learned to cope with temporary blindness for about 10minutes while their lenses de-frost, de-fog, and dry (drying them yourself will not work).

To cope with this climactic travesty, I bought my first scarf. It's very long and made of wool, and I wrap it around my face a few times. Fortunatley there are no Middle-Easterners here, so I do not have to worry about offending anyone. This method helps keep me warm, however I must remember not stay outside too long (10min or more), or the moisture from my breath on the inside of the scarf will begin to freeze and then I have to question the usefulness of my purchase.

To my extreme joy, it started snowing today. I never thought I'd be so happy to see snow accumulating on the ground. This means that it can only be "so-cold" outside....at least much warmer than it's been. It's not a blizzard, it's not freezing rain or hail, it's perfect: white, larger, puffy flakes falling almost straight down (and a little to the right). So not to worry, I'm safe and warm now. The forecast calls for a stabalization of temperature for a few weeks between 10-20F. Yay! A little over a month to go, and then the real spring thaw should begin. I can't wait. I hope you all are also safe and warm. Take Care.