Friday, January 10, 2014

Lessons from penguins

Beginning of 2014 was bitterly cold in Toronto. This polar vortex covered big part of Canada for a couple of weeks. For me this was the coldest I experienced (windchill -38). Ice storme was also new to me. We escaped big part of it by staying out of town during holidays  but still after coming back extreme cold alarm was there to say hello.

Ice storm gave kind of a surreal shape to everything. Icy three, icy leaves, icy bushes, icy driveway ( which was very real and slippery by the way). I was joking that right now if you watch penguins TV, there are advertisement about new resorts in Toronto.

There are lessons to be learned from penguins in a polar vortex icy condition:

Number 1 ) layer up properly, you need a feather jacket (or equivalent), insulated, tightened and sealed to stop wind gets into your body.

Number 2) walk side to side like a penguins. This lessens a possibility of falling. No seriously I did, it works.

And Number 3) Get together like a herd of penguins. During harshest winter storm, penguins comes together, lay their head on one another shoulder. This way their body temperature adds up and makes cosy environment to survive the impossible windchill. Of course penguins rotate so no bird stay too long far from the core.

Number 4) ( this one penguins have no contributions to) consum warm drink. Not only increase your core temperature but also levels up your spirit.

Any way winter is here and I am going to make a best out of it.