Jack of Harts

We’ve had a fun last couple weeks up here in Minnesnowta. The cold front finally came in and decided to stick around for some encore action. Sub-zero weather gets a bit chilly when it sticks around day after day after day. But it kills the bugs, and I can put on more layers, so I’m fine with that.

Layers? Yeah, for those of you who don’t live where the air hurts your face, we wear multiple layers of clothing to keep the cold out. There’s no such thing as a single coat good enough to keep us warm that is also affordable to buy, so we tend to buy coats two or three sizes too large, and wear them over sweaters. Or spring and fall coats. Which we wear over other clothing. That’s layers.

We learn to dress in layers when we are kids because how else are we going to go out and play in the snow for long hours? Plus, if we are playing and get too warm, we want to only take off one or two layers so we don’t start getting cold again. It’s a delicate balance, figuring out exactly how much to wear when the air is cold enough to hurt your face. And it depends heavily on how active we are at the time. We need less clothing when we are working, since we generate body heat from action. So seeing somebody wearing a light spring and fall jacket, with thick gloves and hat to protect our ears and fingers from the extreme cold, is a fairly common sight.

It also depends on whether or not we want to take a picture. We tend to toss off the outer layers so we look good for pictures that are going to go out all over the world, smile like we aren’t already starting to shiver, and then snuggle back up into our outer layers within seconds of hearing that lovely click of the camera shutter. Because we wouldn’t want any of our sissy southern friends and family to realize that we actually think it’s a bit chilly out there too. But that’s winter in paradise. Just the way we like it.

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