How cold is cold?

Temp in the car this morning: 16 F
Present temp with windchill: 7 F
High temp today: 25 F
Precipitation: Snow showers, with some "accumulation" (that means the snow stays on the ground and gives the neighborhood a beautiful white carpet, instead of melting right away and making mud)

Before moving to Binghamton a few weeks ago, I asked John something to the effect of "How cold is 'cold'?" He said that, once it gets below 30 F, it is just plain "friggin' cold" and it sucks to be outside. I think this is generally true, although I definitely noticed something strange on Sunday evening as I was sitting in our living room, reading next to a roaring fire, and my nose was decidedly frosty. I looked at the thermometer outside: sure enough! It was below 10 degrees, for the first time since I'd been here. That certainly counted as "friggin' cold"!

I have apparently been getting off easy with this "balmy" February weather we've had since I moved here, and I had to institute the new measures I've learned in the past 2 weeks:

1. when the temperature falls below about 15 degrees, we need to run our taps so that the pipes don't freeze up

2. one cold weather bonus - which is effectively neutralized by the fact that we don't have a garage- is that our Jeep Cherokee has an amazing feature that I've never seen before: a remote starter so that we can actually start the car (and get it warmed up) from inside the house!

3. another vehicular coping device: heated car seats! I can't imagine that these features are unique to cars in cold weather, so they must exist in Los Angeles, but I had not seen them before and let me tell you that they ROCK!

I know this all sounds totally ridiculous and obvious to those of you who have lived in cold weather before, but I am new to this game at 32, and I'm on a steep learning curve. For the rest of you, learn along with me!