Warmer

Weren't those few balmy days last week just wonderful? What a pleasant end to that fierce cold snap!
One of the places where I work out is an unheated garage in the borough of West Grove (it's a nicely gussied-up garage and it has a stuffed bear, a real bear, in a glass case in the lobby). During the cold spell, when the temperature was in the teens, I took my exercise class wearing a knit hat pulled down like a cloche, a fleece pullover, a turtleneck and fleece tights. I may have stripped off one layer of fleece halfway through class.
In contrast, on my most recent visit, it was 60 degrees out. I wore shorts and a tennis skirt and no socks.
However, one of my gym friends, who works as a contractor, takes issue with something I wrote in last week's column. I quoted a mechanic friend as saying that he prefers to work in the cold. My contractor friend begs to differ. He said he can drink hot coffee all summer long while working outside, but when it gets below freezing and the wind kicks in, "I think, man, I should've gone to a better college."
The wind and heavy rain that came through on Jan. 30 downed some power lines on a back road near me. I was passing by the next afternoon and asked one of the repair guys what had happened. He said a tree took out both a long stretch of wire and an entire utility pole. He and his colleagues were there until well after dark patching up the damage.