From the Doing-stupid-stuff-then-blogging-about-it-so-you-don’t-have-to Dept.
I left my VW at a local garage yesterday in order to get it inspected and was ready to pick it up this morning, with the help of my loving wife, of course. However, Will had a rough night last night and woke her up several times, meaning that she was in no condition to drive, let alone marshall a cranky and tired baby for all of a 5 minute drive. I told her to go back to bed and proceeded to bundle myself up for a brisk walk, as the garage is about three blocks (around 3/4 of a mile) away from my house. What I hadn’t realized was that it was all of 17° F out, with a wind chill of -1° F.
Now, I spent my formative years in Minnesota, so I’m rather used to the cold. However, said formative years were spent without the “benefit” of facial hair, meaning I was slightly unprepared for an interesting experience this morning: the sensation of my mustache and goatee freezing solid. Have you ever experienced a wind so cold that your body hair literally freezes? No? I’d advise against it unless you are quite well-prepared.
No worries, though, as both I and my facial hair are doing just fine now that we’ve thawed. One more thing I can cross off my “Stupid Things To Do Before I Die” list, eh wot?
“Back In My Day, I Walked 2 Miles To The Car Dealership. Uphill. Both Ways.”
During our Ski trips, we can be subjected to below 0F temps, at the BASE, let alone the summit. We come prepared with ski masks, but I remember a time at Snowmass (aka Aspen, but I refuse to refer to the area as such, because we don’t SKI Aspen) when my snot froze on the facemask and to my nose. I didn’t need a personal groomer that day, because, of course, I didn’t KNOW it at the time, and ripped the mask off without sufficient meltage…
Holy crap. You sympathetically made my nose hurt simply by penning that sentence.
*grin*
So what does one do if one doesn’t SKI Aspen, where the beer flows like wine and women instinctively flock like the Salmon of Capistrano?
Aspen Mountain (recently renamed BACK to Ajax Mountain) isn’t all that impressive. It does run smack into the town of Aspen, but…so what. The other 3 mountains in the area (all within 10-15 minutes) are much better choices.
The town of Aspen is ok to walk around in (when it’s NOT bitterly cold), and the odds are good that you might see some of the pretty people, but my brush with fame occured on Snowmass mountain, when I “used the stand-up facilities” next to Danny Devito. I can tell you he is much shorter in real life then he appears on screen…
I didn’t even think that was possible. Jeepers.
I’ve done the frozen facial hair and in my pre-beard days I’ve also had a scarf freeze up around my face. Ah the joys of Iowa winters…