Baby, It's Cold Outside

(Originally published in 2015)

- jim Young 201503

“I've got to get home - Oh, baby, you'll freeze out there,

Say, lend me your coat - It's up to your knees out there,

Baby, it’s cold outside.”             - Frank Loesser

This February Canadians seem to be complaining about the weather more than usual.

I don’t get it.

The fact is the temperatures this February have only been 7 or 8 degrees (sometimes 10) below average.

That doesn’t sound too bad to me.

And on the bright side – there haven’t been many mosquitoes around.

Many people I know have been saying, “I don’t remember it ever being this cold for so long.”

That these same people are “old folks” (my age) lends some credibility to the statement.

On the other hand, perhaps it’s because they are my age that their memory is failing.

Yes it’s true that February 2015 saw an entire calendar month with temperatures below freezing. But it WAS a short month. And to suggest that’s never happened before – even in the lifetime of people say - my age – is an exaggeration.

The last time this happened was February 1978. Practically yesterday.

In terms of daily average temperature February 2015 is set to be the coldest in Ontario – but only since 1978.

Although 1934 IS beyond the memories of people my age – it was the coldest recorded February in Ontario.

And where records go back far enough – it seems February of 1885 was pretty cold too.

So it might be fair to suggest that this is just part of a cycle that occurs every 40 to 50 years. 

Complaining – ain’t gonna change it.

As Mark Twain once wrote, “Everyone is always complaining about the weather, but no one ever does anything about it.”

But seriously – what’s the big deal? 

How many of these people that are complaining about the cold – have to spend much time outside in it anyway?

So it’s cold while you walk from your house to your car and from your car to your place of work.

It’s not like you actually get any colder when the temperatures are below zero – you just get cold faster.

Just how long does it take you to get to the warmth of your car anyway?

Of course the media doesn’t help.

Back in 1979 the temperature was just minus 20. 

Today it’s minus 20 “but with the wind chill, it feels like minus 35”.

I call bullshit!

Just tell me what it feels like to the thermometer. THAT’s how cold it is!

The media never tells you that on the roof of your car as it sits in the sun on these days it’s actually much warmer. Warm enough in fact to cause the snow on the roof of your car to melt enough to come crashing down on your windshield the first time you hit the brakes at a stop sign.

And it’s the same thing in the summer. The media will tell you it’s 28 degrees Celsius but the humidity makes it feel like 35 – because the higher number is a lot scarier.

Do they ever tell you it’s only 20 in the shade?

We live in Canada. And it’s February. 

So yes it’s cold. Baby, it’s cold outside.

As my Dad always used to tell me – dress for the weather – not for fashion.

The American’s have an expression about their country “Love it or leave it” and maybe it’s time we adopted the same sentiment about our country in both summer and winter.

“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome," Ann Bradstreet once wrote.

Its’ February. It’s Canada. It’s Cold. 

Love it or Leave it.

Or as I prefer to say – “just shut the fuck up.”

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