When I listen to the radio or watch the television news I’m frequently given advice on how to stay warm on wintry days or how to stay cool on hot summer days. I’m told when I should be taking an umbrella along because there is a 40 percent chance of a shower.
I’m 69 years old and have experienced 65 Canadian winters and summers and I don’t need any tips on how to stay warm or cool. And I don’t have an umbrella to take along for those possible showers.
Stop it! Quit treating me like a baby. Stop the pampering. I can think for myself. I hate it when my intelligence is being insulted.
I’m well prepared for extremely cold days like we had last week. I wear a thick lined coverall when doing farm chores. It’s like a snowmobile suit. Over that I wear a thick warm jacket. I have good headgear to cover my head and face. I don’t get frost bite. I have plenty of dry firewood to stoke the wood stove in the living room. There’s enough wood in the woodshed to last a few winters. It’s so cozy sitting by the fire on winter days and evenings. The furnace downstairs keeps the rest of house nice and warm.
Some days I really get fed up with the silly 6 o’clock television news out of Ottawa and take a break from it, not watching it for a time. Okay, I know there are new immigrants who have come here from countries where they don’t have winters. They aren’t stupid. They heard about our winters before they came. Now that they’re here they probably overdress a bit in the cold. I watched some Syrian kids take skiing lessons (on the news last week) and they were appropriately dressed for the bitterly cold weather. They were so well suited up they could take on the Artic weather.
But really, do any of us turn on the TV news on an icy cold day to find out how best to stay warm? Radio chatterboxes also get on my nerves with their endless talk about winter storms and to be careful on the road and to dress in layers. Makes them feel good I guess warning us, being a father figure or motherly or smarter than us, or looking out for us. Maybe it’s not that at all but they’re filling in some needless chatter. On really cold or snowy days my radio is silent as I can’t bear the endless babble about the weather. You’d think we’d never experienced winter before.
There’s one tip on how to warm yourself that I never hear about. On cold days my father would swing his arms back and forth hitting his back. We’d be outside working in the bush and if he got cold he’d swing the arms all the way to his back for a few minutes. It was probably something they did in Holland to warm themselves up on damp days. There, that’s MY tip on how to say warm outside.
