窦唯所有专辑:谁知道Fivety below zero这个英语故事??

It was fifty below zero in Fairbanks today. That’s quite cold, even for Fairbanks standards. I remember -50 being a once or twice a year phenomenon (-40 being more common and -30 being par for the course). It’s hard to explain what -50 feels like.

You stay in if you can, but often you can’t. The world goes on with remarkable regularity, even on days where going outside can kill you. They don’t cancel school, although they certainly excuse any absence that day. The buses still run, though, and kids still wait outside. One of my parents or my neighbor’s mom used to drive us to the bus stop on -40 and -50 degree days (or we got driven to school) and we’d wait for the bus in a heated car. What’s really wretched is that the busses often run late on these days because the very poor visibility requires the drivers to drive more slowly than they normally would.

One of the weird things about weather that cold, in a place like Fairbanks that has very very little wind, is that we get a dense fog that makes visibility next to zero. We call it ice fog and it occurs (I think) when the water molecules in the air freeze. (Go here for a picture of ice fog. This is certainly not the thickest fog you can find, but it gives you an idea.) Coupled with the fog, you usually get these cold days in the time of year when you only have a few hours of daylight a day (namely, December - February). So you’ve got fog and you’ve got dark. Not only is it cold, then, but you can’t see very far in front of you when you’re driving. (And let’s be honest, that’s the only time you’re going to spend outside on days like that - when you’re walking to your car, you’re in your car, and you’re walking from your car.) When it’s foggy like that you can’t see the road in front of you so you follow the only thing you can see - the tail lights of the car in front of your. This leads sometimes to cars following one another off the side of the road. You have to trust the driver in front of you and hope that the driver in front of him is staying within the lines.

The physical feeling of -50 is somewhat tough to describe. You might bundle up more than normal (normal is a coat, gloves, hat and maybe a scarf; more than normal is two shirts and a coat, perhaps two layers of pants maybe and definitely a hat, gloves, scarf, and boots (or shoes with heavy socks, maybe)). It’s hard breathing in that kind of weather - your lungs aren’t used to getting such cold air. You begin to feel the signs of frost bite almost immediately - your legs and face (usually the least protected parts of you) start to tingle and get numb. Usually it’s OK - the walk from your car to the building isn’t long enough to be damaging. But you’d best hope that you don’t break down, because any prolonged exposure is deadly.

Speaking of cars - you have to plug your car in when it gets that cold. Plugging the car in makes sure that the various liquids remain, well, liquidy. If you don’t plug your car in (or keep it in a heated garage) then your car doesn’t run. It’s as simple as that. You forgot to plug in your car? You plug it in, go inside and wait half an hour. Many of the buildings around down have electrical outlets where you can plug in your car as you go about your business. Your tires also freeze a bit - which means that for the first few miles you’re on the road, you get a bit of a thumping sound because the spot where they were on the ground is just a little bit flat and that shape (the bit of flatness) stays in the tire until you’ve driven enough to heat the rubber of the tire enough to become a bit flexible and back to normal. The car (unless it’s been in a heated garage) is as cold as outside, which makes the first few minutes of driving unbearable. The windows frost up almost immediately, so all of the hot air is blowing on the windshield to ensure that you have a hole big enough to see out of when driving (and oftentimes it really is only a small hole that you can see out of for the first several minutes of driving). People have started putting auto-starts in their cars so that they can start up the car via remote control a few minutes before they really want to leave so that there’s (slightly) warm air in the car and the windshields have been a bit defrosted.

You can throw a mug of hot coffee in the air and it will have frozen before it hits the ground. You have to put anti-freeze in your gas tank so that the gas doesn’t freeze. And yet, strangely enough, there’s this sort of savage beauty that comes on days that cold. They’re normally some of the brightest, clearest days of the year. There’s a crispness (brittleness) in the air that is simply stunning. On days like that, the rest of the world is so still - nothing wants to move, not the trees, not the wildlife, and certainly not the people. You look out your window and you see the world as if someone put it on pause for just a couple of moments. And everything is so white, against a backdrop of blue.

I find myself getting strangely nostalgic for these super cold days. (While also recognizing that I never really want to experience one again.)

One Response to “Fifty below zero”
Kati Says:
January 27th, 2006 at 12:02 pm
LOL I think you’ve been down south long enough to make one little mistake there….. If you forget to plug in your car, you don’t go back inside for a half hour after you’ve plugged it in…… more like at least an hour, probably (sp?) 2 or 3. Even being plugged in all night, Kori’s car didn’t start yesterday. I’m hoping my car starts this morning, after being plugged in all night, so I can go get my shot today. At work on Wednesday, some jerk-off went and unplugged all the vehicals on the back row of our employee parking lot, leaving several of us employees very nervous as to whether or not we’d be leaving at a remotely decent time.

And, a new sucky phenomenon with these all-power vehicals, esp. as far as I’m concerned (being rather short and all)….. the controls to pull my seat closer to the pedals so I can actually get my foot on the gas…. doesn’t heat up enough to work properly till I’m a few miles down the road. So, here I am, my toes barely touching the pedals, with one bumpy-as-hell-ride, trying to get my seat to move forward enough that I can actually reach the gas pedal. Wouldn’t have thought of THAT one before actually having a car of my own.

Glad you’re staying “warm” (warmer than here, anyway), I know Dad is REALLY looking forward to getting out of here and coming to see you, esp. with the problems he’s been having with the house. *sigh* TTYL. –Kati

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你好象写错了哦,应该是fifty