Cold nights

I grew up in New Brunswick, where winters can get pretty cold. (Occasionally, it would snow as late as May!) I remember the feeling when your hands get so cold that they feel hot!  Toronto isn't like that, with its heat island...

I remember one episode of All in the Family where their heating conked out on the coldest weekend of the year.  Archie tried turning on the stove for its heat, but Edith said, "President Ford says you aren't supposed to get heat from the stove!"

And I remember reading the Jack London Story "To Build a Fire" in school.  It's about a man in the Yukon, travelling in weather so cold that his survival depends on starting a fire with numb hands, but it doesn't work.  His last thought is that freezing to death isn't so bad--it's like taking an anaesthetic.  I found the story depressing. (I got a D grade on it.)