Cold. A good time to start talking about it.

In my previous blog, I discussed "being hot." So for all those who are "temperature challenged," this blog serves two purposes. First, thinking "cool" now may help you out in your so-called current predicament. Second, it may help to curb the "It's cold" comments which are sure to follow the summer.

What is cold? The Boomerang Nebula is the coldest known natural location in the universe, with a temperature of -272.15 degrees C. Man, that's cold ! But check out these photos, it's also very beautiful to look at :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boomerang_Nebula

Ironically, the super-cold Boomerang Nebula was formed from a hot star. It was formed from the high-speed gases flowing out from it ( 164 km/second ) and is expanding rapidly into space. This expansion is the cause of the nebula's very low temperature.

Now, I grew up in a cold environment too, but NOT as cold as the Boomerang Nebula ! I was born in New York, and we had winter temperatures sometimes as low as -30 C. I remember small pieces if ice crystals forming in my nose, numb fingers that needed mom's help to unfasten buckles on my galoshes, getting my tongue stuck to an iron grid on the ground ( that's a long story ), losing a toenail to frostbite while ice skating, and having frozen mittens that could stand up by themselves against a wall.

As a child, there were many wonderful memories in the cold of winter. Our family lived next to a catholic school. There was a small hill next to it, and we would sled down the frozen surface across an empty Sunday parking lot. One sled trip would take about 30-45 seconds. It was so cool ( pun intended ) to glide freely across the ice, without any effort. Of course, we made up for it on the long walk back, and walking up an icy hill in golashes was no easy feat !

Kids can easily turn a blizzard aftermath into an adventure. I remember being astounded that we couldn't get out of our house after a record New York snowfall. My dad got a shovel from our garage, and said we had to remove the snow blocking the front door and put it in our bathtub... because there was no place to throw it ! Then us kids pulled 2 empty sleds to the local store, with my dad leading the way. We came back with grocery bags on our sleds and smiles on our faces. I still remember that decades later. What an adventure !

▼▽▼▼【講師】Rob先生のバックナンバー━━━━━━━━

・【It's Not Hot !】2009.08.28 (Fri)