When I was a kid growing up in the "mean suburbs" of Chicagoland, I somehow convinced myself that Chicago's cold was a special kind of cold, that there was nothing like it and I was "toughening myself up" for the future in other environments, that other extreme cold places wouldn't feel so bad after experiencing Chicago. In my mind the Chicago winters chilled to the very bone, the wind had eyes of its own and would get past all protection you had on, past the scarves and hoodies into your face, and water defied the laws of physics and turned into ice faster in Chicago. Whelp, I hate to break it to the child version of myself, but cold places feel pretty similar anywhere you go, and cold is cold is cold. Winter is just this entirely different beast than other seasons, and one thing I didn't notice before is how quiet it is during winter: the lack of people outside, the lack of animals outside especially birds chirping and dogs barking, the lack of helicopters in the sky and leaves blowing in the wind (they've all been blow off by the dead of winter) makes for a pretty quiet scene outside, eerily quiet, like the world has come to a stop during winter and all inhabitants should be indoors hibernating like polar bears. I will say that Chicago's winters had the added dimension of "wind chill factor" which could really turn the weather down substantially, like 10 or even 20 degrees in addition to how cold it already was, and I've never felt that extra burst of bitter coldness anywhere else in the world. Maybe if I go to Wellington, New Zealand (supposedly the windiest place on Earth) in dead of winter they might top it, but perhaps I was onto something back then.
It's no wonder, then, that the population of the United States is shifting west and south: census data suggested that people were moving away form the Northeast and Midwest to places like Florida, Texas, Utah during the pandemic. Part of that of course is due to the pandemic hitting the most densely populated cities first, as well as the (ahem) less rigid Covid rules in red states like Florida and Texas, but some of that has to be due to the weather. It's why Canada is so much bigger in area than the U.S. but has much fewer inhabitants; the British got the less desirable land as a result of the American Revolution and the War of 1812. I am at a loss as to how people can live sustainably in such frigid conditions year after year, knowing that there's a 100% chance there will be a long winter of at least 3 months where going outside will be a hassle, heating costs will go up, roads will be more difficult to navigate due to snow and other weather conditions.....and the nice skiing only goes so far to compensate for the downsides. It was a certainly a factor when my parents moved the family from Illinois to sunny L.A. when I was a teenager: sure job relocation had a lot ot do with it, but it's hard to say no to L.A. when it's in such a desirable location. And for a guy who does not much like the outfit and clothing game, I get no joy or added satisfaction from having to buy a winter set of clothing and heavy outerwear. There must be some kind of cold-defying gene in some of the Americans whose ancestors came from cold-weather Scandinavia, something my ancestors likely didn't pick up in Southeastern Asia.
And did I mention the static? I've become OCD about avoiding static now, as I've gotten zapped enough to develop a flinch to it. It's not that physically painful, it's just unpleasant and is really kind of jolting; the worst moment of my day is turning off the car after driving somewhere and thinking of all the static that the car's picked up driving around in the cold, then stepping out and knowing I have to touch the car to shut the door. It's similar to the flinch of needles: the pain itself isn't that bad, but it's just the matter of subjecting myself to it and making myself inflict discomfort on myself; it makes me wince just thinking about it. I'll sure be glad when temperatures get above freezing again.
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