When It's Not Cold, But It Is

29 February 2012
4:56 PM

Sunrise at	8:01 AM	in direction	106°	East-southeast
Sunset at	6:07 PM	in direction	254°	West-southwest

Duration of day: 10 hours, 5 minutes (6 minutes, 46 seconds longer than yesterday)

Ho Oh .. today was the first day in 2012 that the duration of the day was over 10 hours - not that I actually saw the sun shining today.  It is overcast, but I did notice teal blue early this morning instead of pitch black.  Yes, this is all very nice.

Today was warm, around 5F (-15C).  Ah, but it was not really warm in the sense that I couldn't be out indefinitely without some protection.  I was in and out of buildings a lot today, getting my mother's Alaska ID ready so we could fly to Anchorage tomorrow.  I did not button or zip up my coat.  I did not wear gloves or a hat.  I did not wear a sweater.  I was not particularly cold, but when I bought tulips for Mom's last day at Fairbanks Resource Agency (along with cake - yummm), the clerk still covered the tips of the blooms carefully.

It is not warm, but you get used to it.  That was one phrase that stuck in my mind when I listened to a wonderful interview of Allen Moore and Hugh Neff talk about racing into the finish of the Yukon Quest, finishing only 26 seconds a part.  Allen said when it is really, really cold - like last year, 2011 .. like -50F below cold, you lose sensitivity to it.  You get used to being cold.  That is life.  He would ask others, "Is it cold?" so he could gauge how he needed to proceed because he had lost that sensitivity.

Jack London's short story, "To Build a Fire", talks about that very hazard.  London described the man as lacking in imagination.  This was his failing.  Obviously, Allen had imagination.  He had lost sensitivity, but not his ability to imagine it being dangerously cold.

It was not dangerously cold today, but pleasantly cold.  I needed to have protection, but could still enjoy the sensation of chill, of brisk air, of the Interior Spring on its way.