If I do any amount of modest exercise, I generate plenty of heat quickly. Yesterday, for example, I’d shovelled the snow off only half the path when I had to open my coat because I was too hot, even though the temperature was below freezing. If I sit, however, or even walk at a moderate pace, I get chilled just as quickly. I only generate heat if I’m doing manual work.
Other people don’t seem to have a problem being warm. Some years ago, when I lived in the city, I had to walk to the train station at 7.30 on a very cold January morning. The approach to the station took me past a parade of shops. It was still dark, the frost was thick on the pavements, and I was huddled in three thick layers and a heavy winter coat. I still felt cold, but then I saw a man walking nonchalantly across the road in shorts and a tee shirt. He seemed quite unconcerned by the sub-zero temperature, and I want to know how some people can do that. Is there some way of learning it? I’ve heard a few people say there is.
Meanwhile, I wonder whether I should temporarily suspend my habit of having a beer at about one in the morning (as a preamble to the scotch.) Beer cools you down; I’ve known that for years. That would be a pity, since having a preliminary beer reduces the amount of scotch I drink. It’s all to do with the point at which I feel tired enough to go to bed, you see.
Decisions, decisions...
‘Nesh,’ by the way, is a slang term from my home town, and means ‘having a tendency to feel the cold easily.’ It’s used in typical male banter such as ‘They’t nesh, thee great pansy!’ Good job I have no typical males with whom to exchange banter, isn’t it?
6 comments:
I like the word, as i tend to nesh constantly. I'm always freezing when everyone else seems to be ok. I'll say its cold and someone else will tell me that no, it isn't.
I was also thinking about body temperature the other day. I was thinking that maybe if i could magically make my body temperature cooler, (hehe), that maybe i wouldn't be as cold as i am when out of doors because there wouldn't be such a contrast between how cold it is outside and my body heat.
When i was younger i felt like such a genius because me and my friends were talking about how when you sit in a chair, and then someone else sits in it, and then you go back it feels warm, but when you get up and then sit back down after a minute or so it doesn't feel warm. I thought about it for a while and decided it was because the other person had a different body temperature. I thought it was a clever explanation at the time.
I heard recently that a group of Buddhist monks went to America and demonstrated to the satisfaction of some scientists that they could raise their body temperature at will. And an actress friend of mine told me that a marine had told her that they're trained to do it to cope with cold conditions. So maybe I should become a monk or a marine. Too lazy for the former, too old for the latter. Better stick with another layer of clothing.
Your body has a variety of ways of keeping you warm, like shivvering, vasodilation, and other various things. However, none of them seem to work as well as a thick woolen coat, right?
Actually, what helps is handwarmers. If the extremities are warm, you don't notice the rest as much. And also going outside with the attitude that you will be warm and comfortable. Brainpower! :D
But what do you do when you're sitting inside and still feel cold?
Ever heard of snuggies?
No, sounds good though. Like snuggles, only less cute. At the moment I'm wearing a tee shirt, thick shirt, winter-weight sweater and a heavy wool jacket with a lambswool collar. So far, I've resisted the donning of a wooly hat. This is in my office, you understand. The rest of the house is much colder.
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