tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14141220.post3121113771471536412..comments2023-11-05T03:47:52.874-08:00Comments on Celebrating the Absurd: Another great yarn...Lorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06633401326479781405noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14141220.post-36634774685959910812010-03-06T14:01:05.622-08:002010-03-06T14:01:05.622-08:00Great image(s), Peej. Thanks for the yarn. :DGreat image(s), Peej. Thanks for the yarn. :DLorihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06633401326479781405noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14141220.post-25328363071125739712010-03-03T20:33:21.982-08:002010-03-03T20:33:21.982-08:00I was staying in a tipi in the Mission Mountain Wi...I was staying in a tipi in the Mission Mountain Wilderness of Montana for two weeks. It was a luxurious tipi, slept 8 if I'd wanted to, with wooden milk-crate bookcases and oil lamps and batik hangings on the walls. There was red shag carpeting on the entire floor with a large circle cut out for the firepit. I mean, this was a real tipi, with a central fire as its main source of heat, and the tipi's sides ended a good four inches above the ground to allow for a smoke-ventilating updraft.<br /><br />I'd become quite competent at fire-building and flap-adjusting. But I was a city girl, and piled on layers of clothes when it was cold out, and whined loudly and shivered pointedly if the ambient temperature dropped below 22C.<br /><br />One night at about 3 a.m. I was awakened by a massive thunderstorm. My fire was down to embers, which sizzled and smoked as the rain came in from above. Wearing just underpants and a T-shirt, I ran outside in the pouring rain and carefully walked the 12-foot-long crown poles around the tipi to close the smoke flaps at the top. I made sure the poles were firmly anchored before going back inside. <br /><br />I lit an oil lamp and checked the firepit to make sure it was out and had stopped smoking. As I crouched there, I noticed I could see my breath. It was that chilly. Yet I didn't feel the cold at all. After ten days of acclimatization, I'd become accustomed to the cold every night. I remind myself of that whenever I open my mouth to whine about being cold.PJnoreply@blogger.com