Cold Cold Go Away
As I write this week’s blog, Chapel Hill is under a winter weather advisory warning or something like that. Classes (both online and virtual) have been cancelled today and much of the country is covered in snow -- even Texas. The storm in Texas is even causing rolling blackouts across 14 states as their shared power grid struggles to handle energy demands. Now you may be thinking, “what’s your point Noah, why are you telling us news we can read anywhere?”. Well my point is that in my opinion cold weather sucks. To be clear I also mean very cold weather as in below 40 degree weather.
What is the benefit of cold weather? Don’t get me wrong I absolutely love staying inside wrapped in a blanket, sipping a steaming mug of hot chocolate, and watching my favorite movie. That is basically what I am going to do the entire day today, but there is only so much of that I can do before I start to get restless. Yet when I want to go out and do something I open the door to a blast of freezing cold air that almost rips the skin off my face and I do what any sane person would do and slam the door closed again. Then it’s back to the blanket, the movie, and the cocoa.
Outside of my own personal feelings about aggressively cold weather, there are some benefits that are only fair to acknowledge. Cold weather can help boost your brain activity and sort of “wake up” your brain. Cold weather can also help you burn calories because your body has to work harder to maintain your core temperature. Cold weather can also reduce allergies and make your chance for diseases lower because many allergies and diseases cannot survive in colder temperatures. Those are the main benefits, but each of them also require you to actually go outside and let’s be honest who is doing that unless they have to. Cold weather also often comes with gloomier skies and a lack of greenery or color in nature which can lead to seasonal affective disorder. In fact, the only benefit of sub 40 temperatures I can think of is snow and after a week of good snow or a few fun days of snow activities, the cold and the inability to drive anywhere or do anything gets annoying.
I know many people live in places like Canada or Chicago where they experience frighteningly cold temperatures all winter long and many are quite happy, but I just can’t imagine living there and having it that cold for that long. Even just having to pay for the high gas bills to heat the house sounds terrible. To be fair though I also don’t love sweltering hot temperatures and am very happy to have a nice cool day where I can wear shorts, but still need a sweatshirt. The best weather of course is a nice warm day where you’re not sweating, but you can wear shorts and a t-shirt. That’s obviously my personal opinion, but it’s the weather where everything outside is green, your body is at a comfortable temperature, and you can go sit outside without a need for any extra clothes.
Anyway that’s all for my soliloquy on weather and why I am tired of this cold and hope it’s gone soon. My friend did just tell me Chapel Hill may get temperatures in the 60s next week so we’re on our way to the perfect low 70s sunny temperatures I think we all sorely need!