Not too much sympathy….

…for some frends of ours down in Daytona Beach, Florida.  They’re complaining about 23 degrees above zero temperatures tonight, comparing it to an “arctic winter” (their words).

Listen, I grew up in Alaska.  I worked on the flight line in the Air Force at Elmendorf AFB for three years, on the night shift, during the winter where it got to 30 degrees below zero, plus the wind chill.  And even that wasn’t a real “Arctic Winter!”

In college, I was at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks.  We had – I kid you not – seventy degrees below zero, and not taking any wind chill into account.  (If you factored the wind chill in, a gentle breeze would have factored in at under 114 below zero!)  Now THAT is an “arctic winter.”

I feel for the orange growers and other farmers down there that are having their livelihoods threatened by crop freezes and such, but hay, these friends of ours are all a-flutter because they have a light dusting of snow on their roofs!  Give me a break.  :)

//Steve//