Big Q Tip 1/21/13

Hey gang,        Brandi, our traffic manager, always complains this time of year about how cold it is outside.  She was born and raised right here in Central Texas, so for her, 28 degrees mornings are cold.  When I give her grief about not knowing what “cold” is, she comes back with southern jargon that should not be spoken aloud, let alone typed in a story.  The PG translation comes out being “excuse me sir, it’s cold to me.”   Now when I say cold I mean temps so low that warnings are issued not to go outside if you don’t have to. And if you do “have to” cover your skin, because anything left exposed will freeze in a matter of minutes. 

I take a lot of grief for wearing shorts year round, but I work in an office where the daily temp is set at 71, which is perfect shorts weather.  I was talking to my old friend and former employee of US105 Chris Cummings this past weekend and when I told him of what North Dakota, Minnesota and other Northern States were facing for the next few days he looked me straight in the eye and asked, “How does anyone live up there”.  It made me smile, because that’s the same question my friends and relatives from up North ask me during the summertime down here when we go through our 30 plus days in a row of triple digits.  So it’s true “cold” is a relative term, and it’s what my relative will be for the next few days.  The Big Q Tip is a mental note to myself…Start using the term frigid when referring to the winters up north.