Hours of Sunlight: None, because of the blizzard!
She's as Cold as Ice
I wasn't able to post over the weekend, as I don't yet have internet access at home (...apparently I need to "call some guy" in order to get internet access... and I will have to get a home phone in order to get internet, even though I don't want one! I also need to "call some guy" to get cable or satellite TV set up... I'm prioritizing the TV!)
I was going to go into the office to use the computer on the weekend but it was So Darn Cold that I refused to leave my house for anything other than necessary socializing... (I was introduced to some of the local nightlife on Friday, but that's a topic for another post!)
The temperature yesterday was around -40 C at its coldest (which also happens to be -40 F for the Americans among you). When you get a blast of wind coming at you, it feels like it's stripping your skin off... which is why you try to keep as little skin as possible exposed (see below).
The cold sure is pretty, though -- this is the view out my back porch, with the frost on the glass door.
Bundling Up... layers, layers, layers
When I first came up about 12 days ago, I went overboard, and wore every single layer of clothing pictured below.
Now that I'm a "pro", however, I never wear all those layers, even when it's -40. At the most, I would either wear (tights + pants) or (pants + ski pants). I rarely wear my long underwear, as it gets too warm walking, and you don't want to sweat when it's this cold. I would only wear my longjohns if I knew I was going to be spending a lot of time outside. As long as I have my ski jacket on, I can pretty much wear just a t-shirt underneath.
I always wear a hat, gloves and scarf, and the only exposed skin would be my eyes. I'm shocked that my eyeballs haven't frozen solid, but they seem to be fine even with an icy wind! We are pretty wonderfully created that the one part of our body that seems immune to cold is the part that we need most in order to get around.
The only bit of skin that feels the wind is the bridge of my nose between my eyes. There doesn't seem to be any way to cover that up, so I hope I don't end up with frostbite one of these days! I hear that if I get a coat with real animal fur around the brim it wicks away the moisture and keeps your whole face warm.
I will post pictures soon, I hope, of some of the local clothing that the Inuvialuit and Gwich'in people wear in the winter. I plan to buy some soon, but it's really expensive, so I'm saving my pennies!
I will close off by leaving you with our weather forecast. We're experiencing a blizzard. There is relatively little snow compared to what a "blizzard" would be in Ontario, for example, but when it gets windy, the snow is so dry and fluffy that it blows around and reduces visibility quite a bit. Some flights have already been cancelled. Exciting times!