Things are warming up... a bit

Things are beginning to warm up a bit in Ulaanbaatar, with daytime highs this week in the 0 F to +3 F range. Not time to break out the shorts yet, but I have reduced my upper layers from four to three, and I've started wearing my regular jeans again (instead of the flannel-lined pair). ... R.I.P. Florence Green, the very last World War I veteran. Florence was a member of the British Royal Air Force. She died on Saturday, just two weeks shy of her 111th birthday. ... A blogger has translated one of my articles about the secret operation on Grover Cleveland into Italian. Very cool! ... The Chicago-based band Canasta is touring Mongolia this week as part of the State Department's Arts Envoy Program. She's traveling with them out in the countryside (as the boondocks are called here) and sent along this photo of one of her hotel bathrooms. The shower has a small hot water heater that needs to be plugged in when you shower. But, as you can see, when you plug it in, it creates a wee bit of a hazard!

Baby, It's Cold Outside...

This is historically the coldest time of the year in Mongolia. In Ulaanbaatar this week, we’re expecting daytime highs around -10 F and overnight lows around -50 F. I spend at least an hour a day outside, walking to and from work. The cold doesn’t really bother me too much, at least not until it gets around -30 F or so. Then you really begin to notice it, especially when it’s windy (which it rarely is; hence the terrible winter pollution in UB).

In fact, it’s surprising how fast one adjusts to the bitter cold. Back in October, I think, Allyson and I walked home from a restaurant one night when it was -9 F. That felt cold. But now -9 F practically feels balmy.

There are certain precautions that must be taken when spending any time outside here. It goes without saying that every part of your body that can be covered must be covered. Gloves won’t do, you need good insulated mittens. Keep moving and you’re OK. Standing in the cold waiting for a taxi is no fun. Flannel-lined jeans or long underwear are mandatory. Layers are your friend. I bought a fancy down jacket from LL Bean before we came here, but mostly I just wear two lighter jackets, one over the other, and that does the job nicely.

There are certain inconveniences that come with the extreme cold. Bundling up to go out (and unbundling when you get home)… Eyeglasses fogging up… Beard covered with ice… Frozen sidewalks, steps, and streets… Eyes watering...

But on the whole, I prefer extreme cold to extreme heat, and the summers here are really quite lovely!

Weekend in Paris

Allyson and I went to Paris last weekend. It was a whirlwind visit. We left UB at 8 AM on Friday and arrived in Paris at 6 PM on Friday. So we had breakfast in Mongolia and dinner in France! We stayed on the Left Bank and spent Saturday wandering around, browsing in markets, enjoying some oysters for lunch (can't get those in UB!). Saturday night we had another amazing dinner (at a restaurant with a cat!). Sunday afternoon we flew back, arriving home on Monday afternoon. Great trip!

Luck

I have a long walk home from work every day (2.3 miles according to my Fitbit), and that gives me plenty of time to think (sometimes too much time). Lately I’ve been thinking about luck. Maybe it’s because I read a story about a guy who just won $1 million in the Georgia Lottery – for the second time.

I like to say the luckiest day of my life was the day I was born: happy, healthy, and whole, into a large and loving family at a propitious time and place in history. That’s a lot of advantages right from the get-go. You’d have to work pretty hard to screw that up (and don’t think I haven’t tried).

But that’s not really luck. More like an accident with fortunate consequences.

In my senior year of college, I met with the head of the folklore department to discuss the (admittedly limited) opportunities in my chosen field. His name was Henry Glassie. He was tall and lean with an unfashionably bushy mustache and a seemingly endless supply of plaid shirts. He looked exactly like the head of a folklore department should.

(As an aside, Professor Glassie is truly one of America’s greatest living folklorists. His first book, Pattern in the Material Folk Culture of the Eastern United States, is a seminal work in the field. In researching it, he visited every county east of the Mississippi River. Every county. Think about that for a minute.)

In his wonderfully untidy office, Professor Glassie warned me that folklore was not a particularly lucrative pursuit. This did not come as a surprise to me. “The only way I’ll ever get rich is if I win the lottery,” I said. “And I never play the lottery so I’ll never be rich.” At this he laughed and said, “What a marvelous syllogism!” I laughed back and pretended I knew what the hell a syllogism was.

Life comprises two things: the choices we make and everything else. And everything else is out of our hands. If you choose to play the lottery, you might win. If you choose not to, then you won’t win. So even winning the lottery begins with a choice. In the end, luck has nothing to do with it.

Public intoxication

Walking home from work on Thursday (yes, I had to work on Thanksgiving), I saw a highly inebriated gentleman standing in the middle of the sidewalk. Apparently he had an urgent need to urinate, but was having trouble accessing the necessary organ. Sometimes it's tough to reach, what with all the layers. He was hunched over, fiddling around with his zipper like it was a Gordian Knot (great band, btw). Suddenly he stood upright, as if a thought had just occurred to him (perhaps "Maybe I shouldn't be urinating here"). But this sudden movement started him teetering, and he fell backwards, like a felled tree. He seemed unfazed by this development, and by the time I reached him, stretched across the sidewalk flat on his back, his eyes were closed and he was smiling. I hope he didn't fall asleep. The temperature was about -5 F.