I know winter can be beautiful. In my mind nothing is prettier than snow and open water. Though even acknowledging that I am not a fan of winter, and the older I get the less I enjoy it. Winter is just fall with an added degree of difficulty.
You know, like in the Olympics when divers or gymnasts get more points for doing harder moves. That’s the same with winter, everything is harder. You have to put on more clothes, heavy clothes, boots, coats, mittens, hats, neck gaiters. Then you have to trudge through the snow, shoveling before you go. For those of us that live in colder states we are accumulating degree of difficulty points at an exponential rate on some cosmic scoreboard.
I for one would like a more concrete way to document those points. Perhaps Fitbit could write some algorithm to account for winter steps. I know I breathe heavier when I walk in the winter, it’s hard work. Maybe they could add a thermometer to the device. You could get one and a half steps for every one you take when the temp hits zero. Then two for every one up to twenty below then when it hits fifty below you could get a thousand for every step. They could call it the fools formula. Though I think exposing the Fitbit to that temp may cause its demise. Mine too for all of that.
We have seen more than fifty below on the thermometer here. As much as I would like to say I hunker down inside when that happens I do not. The animals need far more care then. The water heaters can’t keep up with that kind of cold, and the need for water increases in such conditions. I have to keep an eye on all the critters to make sure they’re safe.
The greatest challenges for me are keeping my eyes from freezing shut and working the latches and door closures. The cold makes your eyes water then freeze. The worst is when that happens, and you are carrying feed or water buckets. Do you stop and set them down to thaw your eyes open or hope you can keep moving in a straight line and get to where you’re going. I can tell you from experience it is smarter to set the buckets down.
May your winters be more beautiful than difficult.
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