Give yourself a pat on the back because if you’re reading this than you’ve survived “Polar Vortex 2020!” We only have two more days of very cold weather before we get a break starting on Monday, and you can almost hear the collective sigh from people across Saskatchewan. Every night this week was a soup kind of night and I don’t know about you, but I’m getting a little tired of soup!
This morning as I was walking to work I had a sudden realization that I have acclimatized to the conditions finally because I thought it was actually a very nice January morning. When looking at the temperature at the time it was actually -22 with a -31 windchill. Two weeks earlier we’d probably be complaining about that wouldn’t we? But when we were one of the coldest places on the entire Earth this week, all of a sudden -22 with a -31 windchill felt tropical! Well, maybe not tropical because I didn’t see Jamie Lewis out in a speedo yet thank goodness!
I also realized I acclimatized when my exceedingly dry skin caused by this extreme cold, was no longer bothering me! I got used to my dry skin and, of course, being a man I’m too proud and stubborn to use a lotion or moisturizer. That would show weakness, you know.
We are a people who love to complain about the cold and wind, yet we never move, and we speak about it with pride when we visit a hot destination in the United States or in the Caribbean somewhere. When Saskatchewanians head to Arizona, Mexico, or wherever they go, you know they’ll be telling resort staff all about “Polar Vortex 2020” even though, I’m sure, they’ve heard the stories hundreds of times but because they’re so friendly they let us vent about the weather anyway.