Memories of cold

Sure, this weather in Austin is frigid, much colder than normal. But all I can think of when faced with this cold weather is that I once upon a time worked outside in weather like this.

During my Habitat*Americorps year, I specifically remember working on a new build in Minneapolis in below freezing temperatures. Since the house was only framed, there was no warm place, really. There was an old shed in the back yard, as well as the portable toilet, but you had to go through a sort of icy obstacle course to get to it. For some time we had a butane heater set up in the shed, but you couldn’t keep the door closed because the fumes would make you pass out. So the site supervisor took plastic sheeting* (like you would normally use to enclose insulation before you install drywall) and covered one of the framed rooms of the house with it, leaving a large hole so that the carbon monoxide could escape. It still didn’t help much.

I don’t know why they thought volunteers would accomplish much on a new build during a Minnesota winter, but we had a group of ladies from Goodwill who came out to the site for a few hours each morning to learn construction. We set up roof trusses, installed windows and doors, discussed Love & Basketball, all while I crushed a little on their male instructor. Yet we still had to take multiple breaks to go warm up as well we could.

To make it slightly more bearable, I would layer as best I could: long underwear, a long-sleeved t-shirt, a hooded jacket, and my Carharrt coat on top. For my bottom half, long underwear and jeans, heavy socks and my boots. Needless to say, my top half was usually warmer than my legs and feet.

In the afternoons, l was lucky enough to be able to work in a rehab in St. Paul with a bunch of 3M retirees. It was nice and toasty, and slightly more productive.

*I just remembered it’s called Vapor Block.