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December 13, 2007
Cold is Relative - Making Do In Challenging Circumstances
It's cold outside! In California, in Iowa, and especially all across the midwest. When I tell my friends and relatives in Iowa that I think it is too cold, I am sure they feel like saying "poor baby". 30 or 40 degrees seems like a heat wave when you are experiencing temperatures down around zero or below.
The point is - it's all relative - to your surroundings, your state of mind, to your attitude, to the perceptions of those around you, and last but not least, in this case, toward your willingness to layer on the clothes.
You may wonder where I am going with this. Life is full of experiences. I attended an evening board meeting the other night to discuss a document amendment project. The heater in the clubhouse was not working - the pilot light was out, maybe among other things. When I walked in three board members were there and it was really cold in there - and since we were going to be sitting for about 2 hours to discuss documents, it was not likely to feel any warmer as time went on. First, I offered to light the pilot light (yes, I have done that, and being a "midwestern girl", its something you just need to know). The Board President, a male, in a kilt (this is no lie) did not take me seriously and just kind of laughed it off - or pretended he didn't hear me, I was not sure which. I honestly thought about leaving. It was probably around 35 degrees outside and maybe 50 inside (no lie!). I thought to myself ... "a kilt and a jeans jacket... haven't seen that in awhile", and ... "I guess if he can take it, I should be able to, wiith my warm pants, warm sweater, sweater jacket, uggs, and warm scarf." So I, along with the others, powered through it until finally, one of the handyman owners came in and fixed the heater. Then it got very warm very fast (it was a small clubhouse) and we all started to yawn, feel toasty, and tired ... I was glad to get out in the cold.
Then, I got home and there was an email from my 80+ year old mother in Iowa. She is in the middle of one of the worst ice storms of the century.
She told me that about 45,000 people in the Iowa City area lost power when ice covered all trees and wires and branches. Whole trees crashed down with the weight of the ice. She was without power from 11 A.M. to 7 P.M. one of the days. She reminded me that she lived on a farm with no electricity when she was young, and that thought kept her content with what she had - her gas fireplace worked, and she keeps a battery operated radio and camping lantern and candles on hand because of the possibility of tornados. She got ready for bed piling on the warm clothes and blankets prepared to weather the night, but her power outage ended by 7 P.M. She said that after sleeping in an unheated bedroom in N.W. Iowa during her teen years on the farm, she remembered how they took heated bricks wrapped in newspapers to bed with them, and she was not frightened of a minor storm in the Iowa City area. She closed with this: "At least is not boring here."
Ice storms, sub-zero temperatures, non-working heaters, kilts for goodness sake ... should I continue to whine about a little drop in temperature to freezing and a cold clubhouse once in awhile? It is all relative isn't it?
Posted by Beth Grimm at December 13, 2007 8:41 PM