A few thoughts about "The Cold"

"The Cold" seems to be the talk when it comes to Alaska.  Either people here asking us how we are doing with "The Cold" since we moved from (assumedly hot) Arizona, or people from the lower 48 asking how cold it is, etc.  In fact, I said to Dave just the other day that I think I'm really going to like it here, except for "The Cold".  Although, that's not entirely true.  "The Cold" isn't so bad (yet).  The daytime temps hover a bit above 0*F with some days staying below zero and others being balmy and in the 20's (when we're lucky).

Much to our dismay, we hardly have any snow.  We had a few inches early in November, then a bunch more early in December.  Luckily it doesn't melt, but apparently the snow does go bad. This is a picture of the snow around the parking lot at work from a few weeks ago... looks like cauliflower to me!

I think the trick to combating the cold is to just dress warm and embrace it.  Picking up a new hobby... classical cross country skiing has helped too...

 
I recently read an article in my favorite magazine "Trail Runner" that said this (quoted from The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Enounters in the Wild) "The elk that you glimpse in the summer, those at the forest edge, are survivors of winter, only the strongest." That statement has helped to give me the mental energy to get myself dressed for my frigid, dark morning or post-work runs.  It's always worth it once I warm up, 10 minutes from stepping out the front door.  And the absolutely breathtaking fairyland like forest I get to run through a mile from home is enough to make me wonder why I even hesitated to GET OUT. Every run or ski makes me feel stronger mentally and physically.  I want to be the winter survivor.