Weather

I know that we Californians are total weather wimps, but it was really thrown in my face with the cold snap this weekend.  At one point I was wearing 4 layers -- a merino wool baselayer, a light sweater, a down(like) jacket and a windproof over-jacket.  That was enough (it was only in the high 20s), though my gloves aren't warm enough and my head... (see below).  But things I observed:

• I thought I was getting paler as I got older, but I realized that it's just that I don't have rosy cheeks from being (permanently) wind burned.  No blusher needed by me for the rest of this trip.
• wind chill factor: I had totally forgotten how this ruled our lives in other climates -- it was much more important than the actual temperature (in Speyer at one point, the actual temperature was 32 and the wind chill temperature was 22, so it matters a lot).  In the Bay Area wind matters as "we need a cooling breeze" or "the temp is fine when you are standing, but going 10mph on a bike is a lot colder" or even "that headwind is making biking hard", but those are smalltalk talking points, not life-and-death-feeling observations.
• my hat.  Shortly before I left for Germany I lost my main knit hat on a hike.  I was going to a knitting Expo that week, and decided to shop for some yarn and a simple hat pattern.  I could whip a simple hat up waiting in the airport practically.  But at an Expo like this, the vendors have their fanciest/nicest yarns and patterns worthy of such material.  I ended up with a lovely, soft, part-cashmere yarn and a pattern that I believe will look terrific on me when it is done (I will post a picture when/if I finish it) but is pretty complex -- for the knitters in the audience it is done with short rows and a lot of increases and decreases.  I'm not sure if I will finish this hat before we return to the US (where it will sit in my closet till next fall, I am sure). What was I thinking?  I do have another hat with me, but it doesn't cover my ears well, so that contributes to my feeling of frostbite.

The weather is going to go back to its previous above-freezing level by Thursday, so I may survive :-)  At least the cold has brought sunshine, always welcome during a German winter.