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GIVEAWAY! Brrrrrrr - It's COLD out there CONTEST

I live in Wisconsin.

So I'm cold pretty much 9 months out of the year.

My worst cold experience was driving from Detroit, where my family lives, to East Lansing when I was a student at MSU. It was early February and I had borrowed a friends *** Chevy Nova. There was a winter storm warning, but I was young and stupid and decided to proceed.

Somewhere outside of Howell, MI a blizzard hit the highway full-force. Out of nowhere, the Chevy Nova decided to give up the ghost and die on the side of the highway (I think the thermostat failed). Unbeknownst to me, the highway had been closed and I was officially stranded in the middle of a blizzard in sub zero wind chills. Fortunately, I had a pile of fresh laundry so I was able to layer my clothing and had some leftover, cold pizza for sustenance.

About 12 hours later, the highway patrol came along and rescued me.

I made it back to East Lansing just fine.

I think that *** Chevy Nova is still sitting abandon on the side of I96.
 
1985 Bedlam Football Game

This game was misery. It was freezing rain all day. The field and stands were coated with layers of ice. The aluminum bleachers in the stadium were thickly coated ice. If you sat on them the ice would melt into your pants which immediately froze when you stood up. I lasted until halftime, left to go to my car which was not coated in ice. Couldn't get the key in or open the doors. It was super cold and as miserable as it gets, lol.

 
Another generous and wonderful PIF by Scott! I'm in!

This happened when I was in school. It was my first year in Chicago; my school was downtown and located right across the street from Lake Michigan. Some of my classmates were from Chicago and the upper Midwest; they advised me to get long johns for the winter. At the time, I laughed it off as them just having fun messing with a California guy.

Come winter, it started to snow. Initially, it wasn't too bad. Although I slipped on black ice (seriously, what the heck is up with black ice?!?! 😣), I wasn't too cold. Besides, I'd gone skiing and camping when it snowed before. A little snow wasn't a big deal.

Then December hit. The thermometer started to drop. And drop. And drop some more. The snow on my deck began to pile up. The sidewalks and streets in quickly became covered in grey slush and black ice.

Luckily, the semester was pretty much over and it was finals study period so I only had to show up to school for my final exams. Besides, I had brought some of the coats, sweaters, jeans, scarves, ear muffs, beanies, and gloves that kept me warm and toasty when I skiied and camped in the snow before. I was going to be fine, or so I thought.

After taking a final exam at school one day, I waited at a bus stop for my ride home. Since my school was right next to Lake Michigan, the lake effect was strong. Cold winds whipped across the lake, freezing the waves in mid-break before rushing onshore and sapping the heat from everything in its path. It was a sight to behold, but from the luxury and comfort of a warm building--not from an unheated bus stop in the wind's path.

The bus stop's glass walls provided no protection from the wind. Not only were there large gaps at the corners (intentionally designed to prevent homeless folks from seeking shelter and/or sleeping unmolested by the elements), but the glass stopped about two feet short of the ground. All of this, plus the open side of the bus stop allowed the unrelenting Siberian winds to chill the bus stop and to rip through my jeans. I now understood what people meant when they said it was biting cold--it felt as if the wind and cold were stripping away my flesh with needle sharp teeth. For the first time in my life, I felt cold down to the very marrow of my bones.

After suffering through this another three times, that winter break, I made sure to load up on long johns before returning to Chicago. 😆
 
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All righty! Call it a moment of weakness or The Captain just wanting to be Santa Claus. He has decided to have a separate drawing for any and all Canadians that post here. We're lookin' at you, @brucered, @Yuritau, @Ron R, @esky15. Any other Canadians are welcome to jump in as well.

If ANYbody knows cold that would be a Canadian, eh??

So there will be three winners that are CONUS and one winner selected from Canadian entries. I am counting on having the next month of bliss. Then when the First Mate does the books at the end of the month she will say, "HEY! How come our shipping expense is out of whack again???" :biggrin1:
 
That Abaco scuttle is amazing! It would match my bowl! I'm in please!

A few years ago we had -55 with the wind chill. Me and a coworker were on the road in a diesel van, and we couldn't shut the van off while we were at the job site or it wouldn't have started back up! Of course, being the newer of the two, everytime a supply or tool was needed from the van I was the one sent to retrieve it.
 
I'm in.

I live in the Midwest. We live about a mile off the pavement, so if it snows we have to blade the driveway. It was about 8 inches of snow with about two foot drifts on the high spots. I was on the tractor (no cab) and the north wind chill temperature was well below zero. I was cold to the bone!
 
As always this is very generous of you Scott @Captain Pre-Capsize
I’m in please.

I went to college in New Hampshire. During the winter, the days were routinely below 0F. My roommate and I got fed up with the cold temperatures so we decided we wouldn’t report the weather to each other as cold or anything like it. We took to calling the weather every day “brisk” “invigorating” or some other such word, but we always tacked on a number. The number was the number of breaths it took for our nostril hairs to freeze and it was always less than 10. The coldest day we had was -55F, that was a “Brisk-1!”
 
1995 ish, new years eve. Before credit cards were taken like candy every where a group of friends and myself were waiting in line for an ATM on the outside of Wrigley field. The wind was whipping off of lake Michigan, we were poorly dressed to be outside.....not enough antifreeze. Damned cold
 
Oooh, now that I CAN(ada) be in, I've got one that really sucked!

Winter of 2018. It wasn't overly cold, just a normal -12°C. I was working on the waterworks crew in public works. We had one water meter chamber that also had a sample line tapped off the main just downstream of the meter. A leak had been observed in the sample line down near the tap point.

Get all set up for the confined space entry (it's a manhole access only) to go in and replace the leaking section of pipe. Get down in and turn the valve handle to shut off the sample line and.. oops, the valve just breaks off in my hand and now there's a 1/2 inch line at full main pressure blasting into the chamber around me, soaking me completely. Can't shut off the main, that's the water feed for the whole city, and doing that would take longer than what I did anyways. Called up for a hacksaw and a Sharkbite fitting, we're doing it live!

By the time I cut the corroded pipe off and jammed on the Sharkbite fitting, then put a new valve on it and got it closed off, I was almost hip deep in freezing cold water and the line I was working on was below the surface. Couldn't really feel my hands or lower half anymore, but with the line capped off I told my boss I was done for the day and headed back to the showers as quick as I could. But not before my jacket and coveralls basically froze solid on me while I was getting unhooked from the safety line. Pretty lucky I didn't get any bad frostbite that day.
 
All righty! Call it a moment of weakness or The Captain just wanting to be Santa Claus. He has decided to have a separate drawing for any and all Canadians that post here. We're lookin' at you, @brucered, @Yuritau, @Ron R, @esky15. Any other Canadians are welcome to jump in as well.

If ANYbody knows cold that would be a Canadian, eh??

So there will be three winners that are CONUS and one winner selected from Canadian entries. I am counting on having the next month of bliss. Then when the First Mate does the books at the end of the month she will say, "HEY! How come our shipping expense is out of whack again???" :biggrin1:

AWESOME!

Now that I'm in Canada I've learned the extra shipping expenses on shaving supplies 😢

Coldest I remember being was as a child. My brother and I would hook a rope to a wood sled with metal rails - then attach that rope to our 4-wheeler.

We'd lock our arms through rail section and take it down a long hilltop at full speed, then the driver would turn as hard as they could and take it back the other way....the rider on the sled tending to roll over and over as the turn happened.

If you managed to hang on you usually ended up upside down as the 4-wheeler pulled you in the opposite direction.

We would do this for hours and snow got deep in every opening of your clothes.

Looking back I'm shocked neither of us ever got hurt!

Of course, I'm in Canada now so this winter will be full of new cold experiences.

Just today I was working outside in the rain as the weather fluctuated just above and below freezing and it seemed like a nice warm day because it hasn't been that "warm" for a week. I walked to the convenience the other day in shorts at a few degrees below freezing.
 
I haul Gasoline, Diesel and jet fuel in the Great Rocky Mountains so I understand cold. I think one of my worst cases was 25 below 0 and the wind blowing so hard I had to lean into it the entire time. I cant say what temp it was but I was extremely happy I had a warm truck to climb back into. It takes 30 to 45 minutes to unload the truck. You can put on all the layers in the world to try to stay warm. But when you have to work only so much clothing can be put on because you gotta move.

Driving across what is called "South Park" in the middle of the winter (Yes, Its where the cartoon comes from) I've seen the outside temp guage on my truck say -35. I dont know if it will go any lower than that and I dont want to know. Chaining up at the top of some of the passes here in Colorado can be miserable too. Imagine its dark, Cold, Snow blowing slideways, 10,000 ft elevation and your stuck on the side of the road praying a car of another truck dont come around the corner becuase there really isnt a side of the road any more.

Brrr......
 
Left Houston on a flight to Cincinnati. Packed all my cold weather gear figuring I'd change in the airport before exiting. My flight gets stuck in Chicago because of blizzard conditions and below 0 temps. No problem, Delta will put me up for the night... Except they can't give me my luggage because it's already left for Cincinnati. I spent 30 minutes outside waiting for the Delta van in jeans and a tee shirt listening to the flight crew telling me not to go back inside because the van won't wait.
 
As I type this it is 11 degrees outside with winds of 28 mph. No better time for a contest about the cold and no better time for you to have three chances to win something to keep things warm...

Here is how you enter:

Tell us about a time you were cold - what was it like?

The three winners will be selected by random.org after this runs a few days. Each one of the winners will get to choose one of our popular shaving scuttles to keep their lather warm. This is CONUS only please. Here are some pics from our store of the four different colors. More info about each one can be found right here.

Have fun with the stories!


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As I type this it is 11 degrees outside with winds of 28 mph. No better time for a contest about the cold and no better time for you to have three chances to win something to keep things warm...

Here is how you enter:

Tell us about a time you were cold - what was it like?

The three winners will be selected by random.org after this runs a few days. Each one of the winners will get to choose one of our popular shaving scuttles to keep their lather warm. This is CONUS only please. Here are some pics from our store of the four different colors. More info about each one can be found right here.

Have fun with the stories!


View attachment 1389281View attachment 1389282View attachment 1389283View attachment 1389284
I live in ohio so it can get pretty cold here. I remember when I was 18 my first job was doing security at the local airport. Now I'm not talking about TSA we were contract and worked the drives on arrivals and departures. One winter it was so cold that my face actually became windburnt!! I was wearing thermal pants and shirt two pairs of socks my uniform shirt and pants, a sweater l, a scarf and a heavy winter coat, still the cold was unbearable! The wind chills got below zero at times and we would have to take turns going inside to warm up. I did not really know what cold was until I worked that job and it taught me the importance of layering!
 
I'm in -- growing up in Northern Wisconsin on Lake Superior, so too many cold stories to relate (snow squeaks, railroad tracks squeal and screech, and car tires flat spot overnight, driving 50 miles home in sub zero temps after shattering the driver's window trying to retrieve the keys locked inside), but after thinking, my "worst" experience was my first Nuclear Alert Tour on a B-52 crew in the UP of Michigan (Christmas Alert tour, what else?). What we considered a tradition, most sensitive folks would call hazing, but newbies were initiated into the brotherhood their first tour in a number of ways. Mine was being pulled out of bed in the middle of the night, stripped to my underwear and carried outside where one grabbed my arms, another at the feet and I was swung up and over a snowbank that was about 10-15 foot tall. That in itself would have been okay, however the day before had been sunny and warm (in the 20s) but that night temps crashed below -15F, so the warmed snow froze over into a hard crust. Instead of sinking into the softer snow on the other side of the bank, I bounced off and then slid down to the bottom of the other side and then spent the next minute or two trying to "Scoobie-Doo" scramble back up and over the snowbank, across the icy parking lot and back into the tunnel. The shock and awe of going from warm bed to scrambling over the bank is like sticking needles into your skin and it's hard to breath, but that was not the painful part. Making it to the door of the tunnel to go back inside, my warmish feet and hands were now wet and cold. The cold clouded my thinking, so it wasn't until I was about to pull the door open that I realized I had both feet firmly planted on the metal drainage grate in front of the door, my left hand on the door frame and the right hand on the door handle. I remembered the lesson that Greg Morton learned in third grade when we talked him into licking the frost from the metal handrail during recess, but momentum and speed were working against me, which resulted in minimal loss of skin. There was however, a moment of regret and second thought when my feet didn't want to move at first...
 
I live in the Midwest and several years ago we got called to a structure fire in a neighboring community with only a volunteer fire dept. The actual temperature was 5 degrees F and it was around 1 am. The occupants were out of the house and as we started to make entry an oxygen bottle popped off in the house and rocketed through the wall. Needless to say we then went defensive and set up a surround and drown while listening to home oxygen tanks (the home owner had dozens of small tanks all over the house) pop off inside and help fuel the fire. By the time we finished upthe entire area was a skating rink and our gear was frozen over to the point we had to chip the ice off to remove our coats and we had to bring trailers to the scene to pick up our hoses which had frozen solid before we could get them drained. It sure felt good to get back to the station and take a warm shower. One of the many cold stories I could tell but one of the most memorable due to the multiple explosions inside.
 
Maybe it is going to be cold enough in the next months for an elf steden tocht in the Netherlands but for now the coldest I remember recently was last winter when I by accident took bm terror as a shower soap… that was definitely minus 15….

Politely not in for the pif
 
I'm in, how can I resist the temptation? Thank you for the cool PIF, Scott.

I'm sorry, I have no stories to compete with those from the more northerly regions! The closest I could come would be a freezing cold night camping in the New Hampshire mountains. It seems that it is always chilly. I remember taking a dip in a pretty granite watering hole that was so cold I could not stay in more than a few seconds. Very brisk, indeed.
 
Not in, but I do remember a few cold ones. One was in 1980 visiting a friend in St Paul, MN over the Christmas holiday. We were out walking his dogs and their pee would freeze on contact. The one I felt the most was the great ice storm of 1990. It was February and I just moved into a new apartment and we had 3 inches of ice descend on us. The interstates were impassible and the power was out for nearly a week for most Champaign-Urbana residents. I slept in a sleeping bag. My parents were cooking on a gas fireplace.
 
AWESOME!

Now that I'm in Canada I've learned the extra shipping expenses on shaving supplies 😢

Coldest I remember being was as a child. My brother and I would hook a rope to a wood sled with metal rails - then attach that rope to our 4-wheeler.

We'd lock our arms through rail section and take it down a long hilltop at full speed, then the driver would turn as hard as they could and take it back the other way....the rider on the sled tending to roll over and over as the turn happened.

If you managed to hang on you usually ended up upside down as the 4-wheeler pulled you in the opposite direction.

We would do this for hours and snow got deep in every opening of your clothes.

Looking back I'm shocked neither of us ever got hurt!

Of course, I'm in Canada now so this winter will be full of new cold experiences.

Just today I was working outside in the rain as the weather fluctuated just above and below freezing and it seemed like a nice warm day because it hasn't been that "warm" for a week. I walked to the convenience the other day in shorts at a few degrees below freezing.
Growing up, my brother used to pull me down the dirt roads on a wood/metal runner sled behind our snowmobile -- no greater rush than going 40-50 mph only 4 inches above the ground, at night, behind a snowmobile with the headlight/tail light off down an icy dirt road running from the cops; sirens wailing, red and blue lights bouncing off of the snowbanks towering above you on either side as the county cops try to catch up without putting it in the ditch (again)... Ah, the 70's, good times.
 
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