Sub-Zero!!!

The temperatures here are plummeting once again as we're getting another treat from the polar vortex!

The weather report on the 11 p.m. news tonight said the temperature then in Clearfield (which is about 20 miles from where I live) was below zero then and had a wind chill factor -then- of about -21! And, if that's not enough, with the dip in temperatures they are predicting for overnight, by 7 a.,m. the wind chill factor is predicted to be between -25 and -30!

Now that is cold!

And guess who had to venture outside tonight at 1:45 a.m.?

Yep! Me and my lovely silly little mutt, Sammy!

During the really cold winter months, I always dress in "layers."  Besides the layers of natural fat I have accumulated (which, by the way, I don't detect any assistance from them in the heating department) I wear a pair of long underwear under my jeans, a turtle neck sweater under a heavy wool sweater, then a nice warm scarf gets wrapped around my neck and the jacket goes on next. THe jacket is a good warm, heavy mid-thigh length with a fake-fur trim around the hood. I have a thick crocheted hat that fits down well over my ears -and forehead too -so with that on, then the hood pulled up over the hat and another thick scarf gets wrapped around the neck of the hood to fasten it better in place (mainly so it doesn't slide and slip down so the furry stuff blocks my glasses) and with my snow boots on, mittens too, of course, Sam and I are ready to roll!

And yes, it is very cold out there tonight. The kind of cold that pulls your nose hairs together and makes it feel like they have frost on them. (They probably do.) But honestly, we were outside for roughly about 15 minutes and sure I noticed it was very cold, but this kind of cold doesn't bother me near as much as it does when the temps are only in the 20s but when there is a whole lot of humidity and moisture in the atmosphere. THen, the cold is a raw cold and that freezes my butt clear to the bone and takes me hours to get warm again when I've been out in that kind of weather.

THis tonight, with the fresh snowfall we got today, reminded me of when I was a kid and in my teens and how the other kids in the neighborhood would revel in this kind of weather -lots of snow, good for sled riding and we would all tackle the hillside across the road from my house and hit the slopes running! Literally! We would pick up our sleds and take a little running start, slap the sled down on the snow and our bodies on top of the sled and off we would go, down the hill, praying that when we got to the intersection of the sled riding spot and the road that there would be no cars coming!

I'm the only kid in this neighborhood here in town ever to collide a sled with a car! The middle board on the sled popped up, smacked me squarely in the face so I had a big goose egg on my forehead, a few other bruises on my face too and when I saw the car approaching, instead of jumping off the sled (like a sane teenager would have done) I extended my left leg to drag on the ground (spragging we called this move) intended to slow my sled speed down. Well, it may have done that to some extent but it also twisted a ligament or something then in my right knee that gives me problems to this day!

And that infamous sled riding accident of mine took place on the Monday after Thanksgiving in November of 1958!

Today, the hillside where my friends and I had so much fun sees to kids on it sled riding and hasn't had activity like that there in several years now. When my kids were growing up, occasionally they and some of their friends would take a sled to the hill but not nearly as much as my peers and I did back in the 50s and early 60s.

What a shame!

Kids who don't get to experience the thrills of riding a sled down a fairly good slope just have no idea of what they have been missing!

Just one of the many things I enjoyed here in this little village when I was growing up!