I Hate Cold Weather

Tulsa Oklahoma lacks the crowded streets, has reasonable property values, and lacks the hustle and bustle of a large city. It has all the amenities of a large city but on a smaller scale. It’s a great place to live and raise a family. However, one thing it does have that I don’t particularly like is the extremes in weather. In the summer we can get heat indexes in the range of 110 degrees F or greater with oppressive humidity, then in the winter we get snow, ice and temperatures below zero F. The humidity is still present so the cold feels wet. Dave, a reader from Australia, emailed me and wondered how we train in such cold. Good question Dave. Personally having 5-7% body fat, I can deal with the heat, but it’s the cold which I can’t stand. I suppose training in these weather extremes makes us tough.

I grew up in Kansas City, MO. The weather was worse there. When I was young I vowed that when I chose to settle somewhere permanently I would do it south of the Kansas City area. Tulsa was it.

This past weekend has been particularly trying. An ICE STORM came through and dumped inches of ice on the streets, trees, and power lines. I took Paige up to Bartlesville for a swim meet on Sunday and when we came out the car was covered in ice. After we got home some power lines broke under the weight of the ice causing a fire in one of the trees in our backyard. This morning more ice accumulation resulted in trees losing branches and power outages throughout the city. This included our household.

I was up at 5am for work with a flashlight. When I arrived I heard that we were on backup generators and the main oxygen pipeline was broken. Patients in the hospital that were on ventilators were now requiring oxygen delivery with backup tanks. We only had a 48 hour supply. There would be no elective surgeries today. I had the forethought at that time to call and reserve a hotel room before the rest of the town awakened. By the afternoon, the temperature of our home had dropped to the upper 50’s already and it was just going to get colder. The power company is estimating return to power in no less than a week and a half. What!!!!

Tulsa currently now looks like a bomb went off. There are broken trees all over the road and live power lines lying across the roads. Currently the Chance family is held up in a Super 8 motel eating a steady diet of fast food. Unfortunately these are the only places open. Hotel rooms are in high demand. The check in desk at our hotel was a mad house. I feel sorry for those poor folks who were working there because it was getting pretty ugly.

To put a positive spin on our misfortunes, I told the kids to pretend that we were on vacation in “Ice City”. Instead of palm trees we had ice trees. “Isn’t this cool guys?” They didn’t buy it. The complaining and bickering in the back seat of the car still persisted. I just feel fortunate that we have a hotel room, heat, internet, and the “Disney Channel”.