Four times a day I walk past the house belonging to a black, long-haired cat. He wanders his territory or lies on the porch steps, watches me walk, and swishes his tail thoughtfully as I pass. He never approaches me.

Then I didn’t walk past his house for almost 3 weeks.

Today as I approached his house he came trotting out with purpose and twined around my feet asking for petting. Then he trotted next to me for the whole block, walked me across the street, and saw me to the edge of the next property before sitting solemnly to watch me make it safely to the end of the next block before returning to his normal morning routine.

Today when I left for work it was 16 degrees ABOVE ZERO!!! Even the windchill was above zero. One degree, but still. I didn’t even wear mittens.

I have a couple of colleagues who positively revel in the cold, biking in negative bazillion degrees and taking pictures of their frozen beards and stuff. Me? I hate the cold. I’m more like my colleagues that moved here from CA or Hawaii in my preferences, though I’ve lived in the midwest most of my life.

So here’s how I cope:

1. Silk Long Underwear, and get the good stuff (my favorite is Lands End). This is the single most important purchase for anyone living in a cold climate. I’m more of a wimp than most, so I wear this pretty much continuously from October to April. Bonus, I just figured out that you can even wear it under opaque tights!
2. Two scarves — a silk one next to your neck and face, wrapped to cover your nose, and then a regular one over that to keep out the wind.
3. Two pairs of mittens — I have lovely, warm hand-knit ones with thin commercial-knit mittens underneath. And mittens are far better than gloves because all your fingers can snuggle together for warmth.
4. A regular coat for most of the time, but a thick, ugly survival coat for those truly cold stretches.
5. A hat. Ideally it should cover your ears and forehead. It WILL mess up your hair.
6. YakTrax — do NOT try to walk on ice without them.
7. Lots of throw blankets around the house. Nobody can afford to heat a house to balmy temperatures in this kind of cold and wind, so keep things tolerable and then snuggle into blankets for extra coziness.
8. Adhesive foot warmers for inside your shoes. (And when it’s REALLY bad, hand warmers for inside your mittens.)
9. Thick flannel sheets on your bed (again, go for something like Lands End — it’s worth it).
10. Heated mattress cover — warm up the bed for the half-hour before you go to bed. Mmmmm. (Ok, so this one is optional compared to the others. Taking a hot water bottle to bed with you works too. But man, if you have the chance to get one, it sure is lovely.)
11. Window plastic to keep out the drafts. Again, drafts become very, very expensive when you’re talking truly cold weather plus wind.
12. Lots of warm drinks.

What would you add?