Thickening up my Blood

Today, the high temperature was in the mid-fifties. Which really doesn't sound all that cold until you stop to consider that this is the temperature that one might expect on a January day in Oakland. Of course, earlier this week, it was about 80 degrees, so you can't say that there's no weather variety here. Which you can definitely say about O-town.

This cooling will, of course, be a trend. It will lead to snow and ice and me toying with the idea of keeping a flask of bourbon in my coat. I realize that I need to get serious about winterizing my life. Really, the only discernible step I've taken toward this goal is buying a treadmill on Craigslist. Now I can count on not freezing to death when I'm running early in the morning in the wintertime. (I should say that getting this treadmill home and up the stairs was very difficult, as it seems to weigh approximately 1,000 pounds). I've also looked at a few winter coats, but haven't bought anything. I've counted my long-sleeved shirts, and I think there are something like 8. And at least 2 of these shirts really wouldn't keep me warm in the winter since they're basically summer shirts. That's right: I used to live in a place where long-sleeved shirts were for summer.

Mostly, I haven't really thought about the impending winter. Which is easy to do when you have a few warm days that make winter seem like a myth. And I've taken care not to wear too much clothing. No, I am not walking around naked. But I'm not wearing as many layers as I would in similar temperatures in California. I'm trying to thicken up my blood, which I'm told I must do. And what's with that expression, anyway? I have a hard time believing my blood will actually get thicker -- I'll probably just grow an extra layer of blubber. I could fact-check this online, but that would require me to exert some minimal amount of effort. I just don't have that kind of time or energy, with all the winter clothes shopping I'm going to have to do.

Plus, I need to become hardcore freeze-proof. There are just too many people who told me before I moved that I was going to freeze to death in Massachusetts (and if you're reading this, you're probably not one of them). They warned me that it gets cold there, as if I wouldn't know that because I lived in a (well-insulated) cave. They seemed to forget that 1) People already live in New England, so living with the cold has been done, and 2) Coats are widely sold in stores. So thickening up my blood is also a way for me thumb my nose/flip the bird at the people who wanted to tell me I couldn't survive and (implicitly or explicitly) that moving here for my job was a bad idea. They should watch out, because I'm gonna learn how to throw a mean snowball.