Degrees of extreme

Today I rode my bike down to the river and paddled for 60 minutes.  I would have loved to do some more surfing, but there were no towboats around.

As have many days recently, today had a heat advisory in effect.  I think it got to about 100 degrees this afternoon, with a heat index value over 105.  Authorities advise people to stay inside and avoid the heat on days like today.

Certainly, there are those who should heed this advice.  People with respiratory problems or cardiopulmonary conditions, for instance.  But as long as I'm not part of such a group, I feel that the healthier choice is to dive in and embrace whatever weather conditions we have.

It would have been very easy for me to stay in and have a lazy morning today.  Last night I went out to see some live music and didn't get a full night of sleep.  I probably drank more beer than I should have, too.  My body was begging me to keep it air-conditioned.  But I sucked it up and went on outside, and I wasn't sorry. Once again it was breezy today, and that made all the difference.

One thing I've found is that by exerting myself outside in hot or cold conditions, I've developed a keener sense of the degree of heat or cold.  Over last weekend we had temperatures as high as 103, and when it dropped to 96 on Monday, it felt like a profound relief, even though most of the time I consider 96 to be very hot.  Similarly, a 40 degree day in the wintertime feels great after several days of paddling in the high 20s or low 30s.

If those temperatures aren't extreme enough for you, then you should read Dangerous River by R.M. Patterson, the memoir of a hunter and trapper in the Northwest Territories in the 1920s and 30s.  Patterson often worked in double-digit-negative temperatures.  Even though it's been a few years since I read the book, I remember the opening sentence of one chapter: "It warmed up to zero today."