Perplexed

Sorry for not continuing the Hawaii posts. They will resume shortly.

We are up in Alaska for our annual December trip (we go in December and February for a client we have). Funny that I met Tim on a trip back from Alaska and now I go up there every year during the same week in December that I was up there before I met him. And to the same place- Anchorage.

What I don't understand is this: When it is 25 degrees with a windchill of 5, snowing, I'm wearing 4 layers, 2 hats, 5 pairs of socks, and a coat- how come Alaskans keep telling me this is warm? For the record: This. is. not. warm. I know that they truly believe that it is warm because driving around today, I am not even kidding you, at least 8 out of every 10 cars had their windows down with their arms out. Like it was 80 degrees and the best weather in the world. My jaw would have been permanently affixed to the floor seeing all of these cars except for the fact that then I would have let more cold air into my body than was necessary and I probably would have frozen to death. (That sounds rational, right?)

Instead, I am huddled up with the heat at 120 degrees in my layers upon layers thinking, "Seriously, these people are nuts." I thought about trying to put my window down to see if maybe they were right and I was wrong but I was greeted with a big gustful of FRIGID air and snow in my face. And then I turned up the heater to 200 degrees because the gust of that air lowered the temperature of the car to about 10 degrees.

It is a different world up here. Don't get me wrong- it is by far one of the most beautiful, stunning, unique and pure places I have ever been. But it is most definitely also different. It takes a special person to be able to tolerate 5 hours (at best) of daylight during this time of year and to call a 5 degree windchill and blowing snow "warm" weather. That person would never in a million years be me.