Indoor oasis provides relief from brutal cold
The secret to staying warm? Layers and hot chocolate — or maybe just a job in a greenhouse
CAMBRIDGE — Within a foul snowball of the Riverside Park baseball stands, Bert Klein-Horsman worked quietly within a cosy little oasis of warmth on a frigid January day.
His rectangular barracks stood beyond a firstbase line buried in windswept snow.
But his comfy greenhouse job inside, behind a wood-carved sign that declares “Horticulture” outside the front door, is pretty pleasant even on the coldest of days.
“Inside here? It’s about 67-70 degrees tops,” said Klein-Horsman on Tuesday afternoon, as the City of Cambridge’s lead hand gardener at the Riverside Park greenhouse inspected last year’s coleus plants that will soon provide cuttings for the next batch. That’s 67-70 in Fahrenheit, of course. Or close to 20 in Celsius, thanks to three heaters
and four yellow circulating fans that were helping trays of next summer’s city garden pansies poke through soil as foot-long icicles drooped off the roof ’s outside edges.
Yes, it was -12 C outside on Tuesday, even before Environment Canada issued an extreme cold warning for Waterloo Region. Wind chill values were expected to dip to -30 Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning, it said.
On a windy Tuesday afternoon, it already felt like -20 as this long arctic cold snap that threatens to set a 57-year record with its persistent bitterness.
If we get to Friday without going above -8 C for a 12th straight day, that will be the longest such streak since 1961, says University of Waterloo weather station coordinator Frank Seglenieks.
Klein-Horsman, at this green-thumb post for 28 years now, is preparing to clean and sterilize thousands of flower pots. He’s also on call for city sidewalk clearing duty.
“I have an extra pair of coveralls, if I’m asked to go out and plow,” he said.
For many, outside work in the bitter cold is a harsh January reality.
Across from Riverside Park, orange-vested workers helped guide traffic around big transports serving the flour mill across the street on Tuesday. Construction crews carried on working in southwest Kitchener. A letter carrier trudged up snowy Rockway Drive, alongside Floral Crescent.
And at Kitchener City Hall, 20-year-old Joel Mercer worked as a “cruiser,” twirling around the outdoor ice pad at Carl Zehr Square and keeping pleasure skaters safe.
In recent weeks, he’s skated on the ice for more than four hours at a time, depending on the number of skaters. Other times, he’s been off after 20 minutes. His proven defence against the cold — on skating patrol nights dipping to -25 — is doubleedged.
“Lots of layers,” Mercer said. “Lots of hot chocolate.”
And lots of cold nights still to come.