[orconn]

Back in the sixties (yar,yar,yar!) At Univ of Wisc (Madison) we still had class when it was -35F. One attacked getting up Bascom Hill from the Union in segments ...... building by building, warming inside each building on the way. The radio station broadcast warnings to watch your fellow students for sign of white patches indicating frost bight, and tell then to get inside immediately if you saw signs of it. Ofcourse, as students we didn't have the kind of ultra cold weather cloths available today so we just suffered through and made do with whatever we could come up with. If I remember, balaclavas were sold out at the Army Navy Store. I spent two and half more years, after college, on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido where it was plenty cold and snowy but nothing like the northern plains of the US or Fairbanks, AK. My sympathy dkoz for your discomfort, confinement and the cost of heating ..... but something must make living there worthwhile or a bright guy like you would have moved on long ago!