The Ice Man Cometh

I’m on Kiddo during the nights and mornings, since I can sleep or nap or be lazy as needed and J, being in charge of 17 Kinder Kids, doesn’t have that luxury.  On Saturday and Sundays, though, I get to sleep in.  Kiddo usually comes in and gets J at about 07:30-07:45, but I get to snooze until 08:15 or so.  It’s a nice little sleep in for me and, since I’m a night owl, I get to stay up later on the nights before and game.  This weekend was no different, but waking and coming out of the bedroom for coffee and morning time was comical.  On weekends, I get up and start my day by doing good morning love and kisses to the ladies.  Then I pour a coffee and J and I will chat, game plan, and do all the morning adult stuff while Kiddo munches some cereal or fruit and gets some iPad time. 

This weekend, however, I wake and walk out of the bedroom and walk up to J and kiss her head.  Looking down, I see she is dressed in PJ Pants, a long sleeve shirt, and have a blanket on her legs.  Kiddo, for her part, is in Jammies, wrapped in tent bed blankie, with another blankie over the top of that and she looks at me.  “Morning Dada.”  Walking over to pour myself a coffee, I ask if everyone is feeling ok.

Kiddo takes the reins on this one.  “Yup!  We’re fine.  Just, the window is open and it’s freezing!”

OK, I’m just waking and maybe I’m still dreaming….. freezing?  I checked my watch.  Then my phone.  I took screen shots of the “freezing” temps in BKK from the other morning.  

22C is NOT freezing.  It’s, for my F folken, 72 degrees.  Heck, if I could make it so that it was 20-24 degrees everyday, I would.  Part of living in SD was that the weather was literally that about 300 days a year.  

So, a little Flufferfly is wrapped in her fluff cocoon on the floor doing iPad and J chimes in.  “Yeah.  It was chilly this morning.”

That was the theme of the weekend.  That’s it’s COLD!!!!

Cold?  COLD?????

Sigh…..

J mentioned it a few times during the weekend as did Kiddo and they BOTH mentioned that moving to Shanghai will be freezing, especially in winters when it gets really cold.

Everybody, pile into the DeLorean and mind the Flux Capacitor, we need to go back a bit.

I was born and raised, for the most part, in SE Wisconsin.  The same goes for J.  Kiddo, I can understand; She is a Cali gurl 100% and then to BKK.  However, with hiking and a few trips back to the Midwest, Kiddo has done cold as well.  In fact, the last time any of us did snow, it was J and Kiddo on a Palomar Mt hike, when SoCal got some snow at altitude that year.  

For me, the last time I “did cold” was in 2018 when we were back in WI for Xmas.  I remember I was freezing and going out, I would don my overcoat, scarf, gloves, hat, and I’d be in layers underneath.  I was constantly cold.  During that time, though, it never got below freezing and if it did so, I’m talking -1C (30ish F) and that was late LATE at night.  All of the friends that I saw that year commented that we were lucky to come back for a “warm” Xmas.  

Previous to that, we last were in cold in 2016.  A year BEFORE Kiddo was born.  That year, J would wake and go out for a run in the mornings.  She would wear cold weather gear, but always made sure to get out for a run.  Some of the mornings, the weather was still well below freezing.  J would come home and talk about how, once you got running, you didn’t feel the cold anymore.  

Here’s the thing.  We are moving to Shanghai, China.  Unlike SD, it has more temp swings and weather and seasons.  Unlike BKK, it’s not just hot or hotter unless it’s the 4-6 good weeks of weather when it is like above for a bit.  We will see some hot, but cold… 19C is NOT cold.  It ain’t even chilly.  From what I’ve read and people I’ve spoken with, I’ve been told it’s a lot like The Carolinas in The States.  Summers will be hot and humid a bit, but rarely getting above 32/33C.  Spring and fall are nice and both are also long… About 120 days each.  That leaves 120ish days of not great.  

OK, hot and humid.  We are in BANGKOK!!!  We can do hot and humid.  Heck, we have about 100 days a year here when 30C is the LOW temp.  On the other end is the cold.  The Freezing.  The HOW WILL WE SURVIVE THIS.  

Excuse me, J and Kiddo…. 2-5C is NOT cold.  Chilly, yes…. but cold?  COLD???  Come on!!!!!! 

By the time we get to Shanghai, my last winter in chilly or cold was 2018.  Previous that, it was 2016 for true cold.  It will be almost a decade since I’ve done “cold” and I’m looking at it thinking- Yeah, it’ll be chilly and rainy.  Maybe some sleet.  Again, I’ve been told summers are like the Carolinas, but winters are like Seattle or SF.  Cold.  Wet.  Dank.  Dark.  The winds can get biting a bit, but not like SF.  So, chilly.

Here’s the joke… 

We’re going to get there and Kiddo will need to adjust and actually live in cool and chilly.  J, however, will go full Wisconsinite on it and just adapt and be right back to running in sub zero temps mode.  I will freeze.  

Yet, I’m the only one NOT freaking out about it.  22 is perfect, not cold.  

I jest and poke fun at the ladies a bit about this, but they are both looking towards a year from now and how “freezing” it will be and I just wave them off.  I spent 20 some odd years in WI.  I’ve had school canceled because temps were low.  I’ve seen lake effect snow pile onto the city leaving 10, 12, 15, 18 inches of snow behind (25-45cm for my metric folk).  Shanghai, will be different and cold and weird and all that is Shanghai to an Expat and I will be cold, I’m sure, but this freezing stuff…. Nah.  I’ve got cold in my soul that puts anything Shanghai can throw at me to shame.  Anyone who’s had to dig out a friend or jump someone in February in WI at midnight when it is -20F (-29C) knows what I’m talking about.

The good news is, nice weather means we can do more outside than just the pool.  I know, I know, we do a lot, but we can do it longer and more comfortably.  Like, take out the bike and get some rides in.

Also, this weekend, J had a Friendsgiving event with some peeps she knows and works with, so Kiddo and I were on our own.  We wanted ramen, but our place at the mall changed and it’s just not as good.  Plus, a price increase.  Uncool man!  So, we investigated and found a place that is a few KM away and decided to give it a try.  It was good.  Not great.  Not amazing.  Good.  Solid.  It’s a B, (maybe a B-) but above average, even if slightly.  It cracked me up, while Kiddo and I were there, she was talking about how cold it was that morning, how Shanghai was going to be “freezing”, and how Kiddo “doesn’t even know how to dress for that coldness.”  Eleven hours earlier, she was wrapped and bundled because of cold and yet, at night, with the temps the same and the sun down, Kiddo is perfectly fine in a tank top and shorts.

Oh, I can’t wait for the first day below 15C in Shanghai.  :P

Let’s go, Kiddo….. We’ve got a few weeks of good temps and then it’s back to hot and beyond.  Let’s enjoy it, play, explore, and have some fun.  Next year is Shanghai and you’re already freezing and I can’t wait to see it all in real time.