Phenomenon

There is a phenomenon in Vermont (and I suppose in all of New England and other cold areas) that I just never experienced in sunny California. When the temperature hits somewhere in the negative degrees, and you walk outside, there is a sensation of something crawling up into your nose quickly and lodging itself there. What could it be?

This happened to me on occasion, and despite my rubbing or cleaning (when I was inside) this thing always happened to me when the temperature got that low. So when one of the nurses in the office came in one day, and the weather had been particularly cold, she made a comment that explained it all. My staff is always tickled by the novelty of a Californian boy spending the winter in Vermont, or anywhere in New England, and they're always trying to see my response to things like cold weather (to me it is cold, but am now finding that it is every day life that locals get adjusted to). She said, "So what did you think about the weather? Did your nose hairs freeze up?" That's what it was!! Hahahaha! Sure enough, when I'm inside it's fine; when I step outside it's somewhat annoying. But I've never had my nose hairs freeze before. Must be a New England phenomenon.

What is odd, and my senses can't seem to correlate readily is the bright days, along with the cold weather. One would think that with the bright sunshine the days would warm up. But it's that winter earth tilt again that disperses the sun rays along a larger surface area, and we all know from Junior High math that the spherical degradation is reduced by the 4th power as rays get further from its source (or was that college physics? oh, well)

The picture above is the view from the office two days ago; if you look carefully you can pick out my license plate. And a little bit further in the distance is the locally renowned Camel's Hump. Look for further posts on that climb. Below is a nice picture from the office foliage. Not as striking as autumn but pretty by its own right. If you click on it, it's more impressive (unless you're on a PC.)