I ski. My family skis. Consequently, we love winter. It has been depressing until this week when finally, finally! the snow has come. There was a little just before Christmas, but not enough to withstand the warm spell and rain. RAIN – what an awful weather event. Rain in winter is like a cold snap in July. Barely faced with equanimity. But I digress. It has finally cooled off, the snow has fallen and there is hope that my husband and I can get out on our snowboards. Yes, I know I said we ski, but since we live in southern Ontario, skiing is pretty boring.  When we travel more than two hours north of the city we ski (snobs that we are) but when we want fun on the slopes close to home we pull out the snowboards.  The weekend is looking good. Saturday will be a little warm, 0 c, but Sunday appears to be more seasonal at -6 c.

Quoting temperature is all well and good but the problem is that you have to figure out not only what clothing to wear but also what your body is used to. I really like it when the temperature slowly drops through the fall and into winter. You get used to cooler and cooler temperature, adding a scarf here, a sweater there until you have the perfect combination of clothing for the outside temperature. When the temperature goes up too much the body immediately re-acclimatises itself to the warmer temperature and forgets all about the cold and you’re back to square one.

Except that square one is significantly cooler than before.  No easing into the temperature. Nope, the body has betrayed you and it shivers away at 5 c, where before the warm snap it would have been happy at that temperature. Now, the problem is you end up either under dressing or over dressing.  I hate sweating inside a heavy coat and NOT being able to take it off because then all that sweat will freeze!  Undoing it, removing hats, mitts, scarves, just won’t work if the coat is too heavy. Wait, I hate being under dressed. Huddled into the coat, head pulled down like a turtle to keep as much of the warmth in as possible, shoulders sore and stiff from hunching, back sore and stiff from shivering. Hands thrust into pockets, arms tight against the body. All the muscles locked down, but still you shiver. Jaw clamped tight to keep from chattering.  The core has to be kept warm, and the body knows that. You try to relax, to drop your shoulders, ease your jaw but that doesn’t last. The body wrests control from your mind and everything curls in towards the core to keep it warm.

Both are pretty bad, but freezing is worse so, paranoid about being cold, which ruins a day of skiing or boarding, I end up taking everything with me. The car looks like a clothing sale table. Sweaters, scarves, mitts, gloves, even another pair (lighter?, heavier?), of long underwear. Thank goodness for cars. If I had to put all my choices into a bag, I’d never be able to carry it! Then I get there, get out of the car and generally go with what I though was right initially, leaving behind all the extra stuff. I guess, those additions were my security blanket.

But then, as is often quoted in our family, there is no bad weather, only bad clothing choices.