Yesterday was cold.
Not just chilly. The temperature
was somewhere in the forties – not too cold you might be thinking – but with
wind and rain, it was downright raw outside.
The kind of chill that permeates right through your coat and gets down
into your bones. All I thought about
half the day was cranking the electric blanket up to 15 and snuggling in for a
long winter’s nap.
For some reason, this got me thinking about igloos. You know, the domed-shaped ice sculpted homes
we learned about as kids that were used by the Inuit tribe of Native Americans
that lived in the north. As kids, we
used to refer to these people as Eskimos but I’ve since learned that the Inuits
find that term offensive.
To me (especially yesterday), an igloo was the absolutely
last place on earth I’d want to be.
Wrapped in a structure constructed solely of ice and snow? No thank you very much. Given the right circumstances, I’m sure an
igloo might look pretty good to me. I’m
just having troubles coming up with what those circumstances might be right
now.
A floor of ice. Walls
of ice. No place to plug in the electric
blanket or my iPad. Good grief! What were these people thinking?!?
Intellectually, I get why they made sense. My understanding is that the Inuits used
these structures while hunting and fishing in remote locations. There weren’t many materials to build with
and snow and ice were in abundance. The
structures provided shelter from the wind and probably did a better job of
trapping in body heat than even the most cold-tested thermal tent might. The more it snowed outside, the bigger and
more insulated the structure would become.
All of that is good. I get
it. It was practical under the
circumstances.
And the more I got to thinking about it, it occurred to me
there could be great benefits to living in an igloo. Great success out hunting caribou this
morning? No need to worry about carting
around one of those big heavy coolers (an “Igloo-brand cooler perhaps?). Your whole place is a freezer, or at least a
fridge. That meat will stay comfortably
preserved for days.
And what if you twisted your ankle while out on the hunt? Just get yourself back to the igloo and
stretch it out. No need to find one of
those blue ice blocks or use one of those sports ice packs that get all icy
cold when you squeeze and pop the little chemical ball inside the bag. Go ahead and ice all of your other limbs
while you’re at it. There’s plenty to go
around here at Casa Del Igloo.
Big fan of the snow cone, are you? You and an igloo would be a match made in heaven.
Tap a tree for some maple syrup to drizzle on top and you are sitting
pretty any time you want.
And let’s not forget about frozen drinks. Margaritas?
Daquiris? Pina Coladas? Just fire up that (battery-powered) electric
blender and you’ve got yourself one heck of a party.
Maybe those Inuits were on to something. Next snowfall, I might just have to drag Eve,
Rudolph and Holly out into the yard to try building an igloo of our very own. And the best part of doing it in our own
yard? I could run one of those big
orange extension cords out from the house to keep the blender and electric blanket plugged
in all night. Now we’re talking.
Thanks for reading.
-- Frosty
No comments:
Post a Comment