On or about: 03-28-08  00:06, Ardith Hinton did engage James Bradley
regarding, but not limited to: YooHoo to You...  2.

 
 AH>  People say it gets cold in Calgary too....  :-))
 JB>  I knew I'd hear it sooner or later,
 AH> IOW, you knew you'd get a rise out of me... [chuckle].
 
With *no* contempt. 
 
 JB>  and you nailed a *huge* point. That moisture can bring
 JB>  your "wind chill" *way* down.

 AH> Uh-huh.  "It ain't the heat, it's the humidity."  Having

 I'm going to use *that* in context!

 AH> been in  Los Angeles when it was hot & in Las Vegas when it was much
 AH> hotter, I found the dry heat easier to take.  My experience 
 AH> of winter in Saskatchewan was similar.  :-)
 
I packed off to Sask for a wedding last December, and the biggest thing in
my mind, was the 94% humidity. Sure, -27^C when the cat and I loaded up was
respected, but I was worried about frost on the road, and how my
notoriously weak defroster would hold up.

Sure enough, the roads were coated in the morning, but the winter tires
were up to it, and the roads soon dried out with the sun, but the defroster
was lagging badly. Opening the window a crack helped, but was murder on the
left ear. I was tiring of switching the heat from the vents to the
windshield, when I noticed I must have shut the "fresh air"
switch that summer when I passed a water treatment plant, or a malodorous
feed lot.

By the time I left Alberta, the cabin was still moist, but the visibility
was approaching "good enough". The amount of paper towel, and
consternation I spent on the problem...

 
 JB>  I get away with one of the biggest sins in cold weather
 JB>  survival, in wearing cotton as my first layer. Because I

 AH> I wear cotton as my first layer too.  What dries out "in no
 AH> time"  in Alberta might take a week to dry out here, but I think 
 AH> the general principle is the same.  Back to basics... 
 AH> cotton absorbs sweat & it's easy to wash.  Wool is what 
 AH> enables sheep to survive during the winter in the Rocky 
 AH> Mountains & in the Scottish highlands.  Although it serves 
 AH> the same purpose for human beings, it's more difficult to 
 AH> wash.  So you put the cotton layer where it will absorb 
 AH> sweat & you put the insulation on top... that way you get a 
 AH> pocket of air between the two & you can clean your woollies 
 AH> once a year whether they need it or not.  ;-)
 
Mold *is* cheaper to remove... I mean *sweat* is cheaper to remove from a
t-shirt. A friend showed off his new fleese jacket, in that it is fire
retardant. Don't ask me how they did it, but that one issue was the only
tangible drawback to the synthetic.

 
 AH> Yes, there are synthetics which have a "wicking" 
 AH> effect.  Some of my shirts are made from "Coolmax" 
 AH> polyester & I'm very happy with them.  Years ago I avoided 
 AH> polyester because it didn't "breathe"... but times have 
 AH> changed.  :-)

Coolmax: I'll keep an eye out for that one. I have no idea how it performs,
but I've found silk pretty comfortable under the insulation. Again, it
might be dangerous if I had to depend on it in humidity, but for the time I
did spend in the cold in it, I had no complaints with it. The boots could
have used an upgrade or two, but the rest was doin' fine.




... James

___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.20

--- Maximus 3.01