Cold weather, part 2: Do as I say, not as we do

The bone-chilling cold weather is making national headlines, and it is no joke at all. We have wind chill advisories and warnings all over the place for the next 24 hours. Exposed skin will freeze in less than 15 minutes, we are told. In the “do as I say, not as I do” department … I submit to you that I jogged outside this morning with my good pal Artie.

Artie and I have a standing date each Tuesday at 5:45 a.m., and we try to stick to it in all conditions. Like me, he is a former streak runner, and he is prone to poor judgment at times. He still has one streak intact, and that is he wears shorts on all of his runs. The wind chill was approaching 20-below this morning (air temperature a balmy 7 degrees), which tested his shorts-only policy. Artie has entered races as Knuck L. Head, and with good reason. He is a great guy, does many charitable things and has donated blood and platelets so frequently that he earned a nice jacket from the New York Blood Center. But again, he can be, well, a knucklehead … and he knows it.

Poor judgment and practical jokes are his calling cards. A recent example from Sunday at the Norrie Point race: While I was using the port-o-potty, he thought it would good fun to drive his car into the door of the port-o-potty and trap me inside. Scared the you-know-what out of me, and he got a great laugh out of it. So yes, he was out there in shorts today. After a slow 45 minutes, he survived without frostbite and the frost on my beard was minimal.

For nervous parents out in the blogosphere: Our athletes are NOT going out in this weather. It is truly dangerous. A group will be going to SUNY for an indoor track workout, another group will be on the treadmills for workouts and the sprinters will be in the fitness center and the tunnel behind the bleachers for block starts. Fortunately, like other extreme cold snaps this season, this one has an expiration date very soon, and we can get back to “normal” … whatever that is. Here’s hoping the van batteries will turn over so we can get off campus.