Crazy in the North

We’re a little crazy in Maine.

Our temperatures this long, snowy winter have been in the negative range often – more than I can ever remember. With the wind chills, it’s been arctic.

And yet, I saw men at the gas station in shorts and slippers, my son heading to work without warming up his car and with no jacket (1 degree), men biking for exercise or putting their bikes on the front of city busses to use for the next leg of whatever their journey was. We ran outside without jackets or mittens.

We exercised outside every day and all times of the day. People up here will still run or walk or walk their dogs at whatever temperatures we’re living.

I visited San Francisco one April and at 50 degrees, I was running the sidewalks in shorts while Californians were wearing hats and gloves.

I guess it’s all relative…and maybe we do have thicker blood that allows us, like Emperor penguins, to survive and thrive in the cold.

And now that spring has finally arrived, April 15th, we’re digging out our flip flops & capris and shaking our red nail polish to revive it (and us) after the long cold dark season.