Stoopid.
So last night, I got out of work to see the bus leaving. I look around, and it doesn't feel that cold, so I have to weigh my options.

Do I:
A) Stand around in the cold for nearly 20 minutes, waiting for the next one to arrive, or
B) Do I brave the walk home, which is 25 minutes long, but at least I'll be moving.

So of course I choose B, ignoring the fact that if I had chosen A, I would have been in a wind sheltered bus shelter, or I could have gone and killed 15 minutes in the mall or so. RE: Title of this post.

So I walk home, and at about the halfway mark, I round a corner onto one of three east west streets I can take to get home.

It is, of course, like being hit with a facefull of frozen jet engine exhaust.

I struggle home, through about 8-9 blocks of this (about a KM or so), pulling my scarf up over my face, and making the best of it.

I pass one of the bus stops on my route, but it's quite exposed, and at this point, I have not been walking along the bus route, so I don't know if I've just missed another one. So I could be facing another 20 minute wait, without benefit of the bus shelter. I keep going.

I get home, my cheeks and thighs tingle merrily, and everything seems ok - until the coughing starts.

Now, years ago, Noelle, in a fit of - well, fitness - decided, I think it was for a New Year's Resolution, to start jogging. And Noelle being Noelle, that meant that Jan 1st, she was out jogging - in Calgary. In the winter.

To make a long story short, she still suffers from the way she exacerbated her exercise induced asthma, by basically freezing her lungs in the cold air.

Do you see where I'm going with this.

So today has been fairly uncomfortable, and I mentioned to a few people at work why I was hacking like what Tom Waits once called "The Tuberculosis old man, at the Nelson Wheeze and Cough", and colourful adjectives leapt to their lips to describe what they thought of me walking home last night.

Reports vary, but several facts have emerged:
1. Westerly winds (you may recall the east west roads) were gusting up to 60 km/hr.
2. Temperatures at that time of night with the wind chill, were either -32 C or -36C, depending on who you ask.
3. I'm not all that tough after all, in fact, I'm a moron.

So I said to Noelle when I left this morning that I was going to take it easy today. I think you all know how that turned out. I left an hour early, but am now officially fishing for sympathy.

Well?