In my humble opinion

Dear Jack Frost: Bite me

By JONATHAN CHARLES FOX
Posted 2/2/22

On second thought, don’t. Nobody needs actual frostbite, and I’m doing my best to avoid it, although last Sunday’s outing to the 63rd annual Livingston Manor Rotary Ice Carnival …

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In my humble opinion

Dear Jack Frost: Bite me

Posted

On second thought, don’t. Nobody needs actual frostbite, and I’m doing my best to avoid it, although last Sunday’s outing to the 63rd annual Livingston Manor Rotary Ice Carnival presented a bit of a challenge to stay warm. While I wasn’t quite as successful as I would have liked, I managed fairly well, but could not stay beyond a few hours and as a result, sadly missed out on the races.

It was minus-eight degrees when I walked the dog around 6 a.m. but had climbed to a balmy 10 degrees by the time I warmed up the car. I was somewhat prepared (long johns, plenty of layers and hand warmers at the ready) and the event itself was an icy, frozen wonderland of ice skating fabulousness, so there’s that. Freezing temps notwithstanding, I’m glad I was there, and even happier that I wisely left the Wonder Dog at home.

But before I get into that, let me just take this opportunity to thank you all for the overwhelming support in my month-long absence from the pages of the River Reporter. You might have noticed—but then again, maybe not. Either way, I’m back.

I’ve been recuperating from (highly successful) surgery and more than a few of you noticed. Thanks for the notes, the emails, the texts and phone calls, but more than anything, the incredible display of loving support from you, my community, my friends, and my faithful readers, many of whom I’ve never even met. Your support means the world and I’m here to stay for a while and (allegedly) better than ever, at least physically. I’m still crazy, but have been informed that I’m going to live, so I guess I had better get on with it then.

Back to the Rotary Ice Carnival and my somewhat realistic fear of freezing my tush off. Noting the daunting temps, I looked up the definition of “cold” on a website called https://www.medicinenet.com,  and here’s what the pros had to say.

Their definition of cold is, “Of or at a low or relatively low temperature, especially when compared with the human body.” Well, duh.

I continued reading and the website had more dubious information to share. “What temperature is considered cold weather? In common usage, ‘cold’ is a pretty subjective adjective. What’s cold to you might not be cold weather to someone else.” Trust me; everyone at the Ice Carnival in the Manor last weekend was “cold.”

The website continued to insult my intelligence with pithy comments like this. “Cold weather is usually anything that requires a jacket or coat. [Oy.] You most likely hear people say ‘It’s freezing outside!’ when the temperature is above the actually freezing temp, but it all depends on what part of the world you live in and what your perception of cold is.” Wow, man.

Trust me, it was literally freezing at the Ice Carnival, but folks showed up in droves to check out the snow sculptures; the beyond-fantastic exhibition skaters, who were nothing short of amazing. I took as many photos as I could, but it was literally cold enough to freeze up the batteries and cause my camera to malfunction a number of times. For more photos of this truly fantastic colder-than-cold event, like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram and check out our photo galleries at http://www.riverreporter.com. And layer up, because it ain’t over yet. In my humble opinion.

Fun Fact: The human body is capable of maintaining a steady core temperature between 97 degrees Fahrenheit and 99 degrees Fahrenheit. However, it is essential to layer up in cold weather so that we stay protected from extremes of temperature. Wearing right clothes for the right weather is especially important in the case of kids and the elderly. Increased caution should be displayed when temperatures fall below 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

Livingston Manor Rotary Ice Carnival, Wonder Dog, surgery, cold, exhibition skaters, snow sculptures

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