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The Man Scout: Frugality and poor planning can easily get in the way of a scout’s winter preparedness


By Chris Cole
Special to NKyTribune

There’s snow in the 10-day forecast, which is great news because that means we’ll have a dry, sunny couple of weeks. But nonetheless, a good scout is always prepared, so this week I’m tackling cold-weather clothing.

My trusty Boy Scout Handbook teaches that there are three basic principles to keeping warm in cold weather – wear layered clothing, wear a water-repellant and wind-resistant outer garment, and keep dry. Do those three things, the book says, and you’re good to go.

Now taken at face value, none of those principles breaks new ground. I’ve been told to dress in layers since I was a little Weren’t No Boy Scout, and I have found it to be generally good advice. And common sense insists that staying dry in cold weather is always a smart move.

Chris in his trusty grey fleece Columbia jacket with his wife, Megan, at the Krohn Conservatory.

But in my experience, there are two big obstacles that tend to get in the way of me finding comfort in frigid temperatures, and they are both related to the Boy Scout motto: Be prepared.

The first is what I would call relentless frugality. I’m a 44-year-old man living in the thermal kaleidoscope that is Greater Cincinnati and I do not own a water-repellant and wind-resistant outer garment. Heck, I barely own what might qualify as layers of clothing.

We all have areas of our lives where we just don’t care to spend money, and for me one of those is clothing. I pull out my fleece Columbia jacket when the air gets the slightest bit crispy in October and wear it until either the weather warms up or the jacket wears out. I’m currently on my third or fourth consecutive grey one.

Most of the time it’s fine. It can get a bit chilly if I’m spending the day at the zoo, but otherwise it keeps me warm enough walking to and from the car.

But the truth is, it’s impossible to be prepared if you refuse to buy the right equipment.

The other obstacle that gets in my way sometimes is failing to properly plan for the cold. A good scout anticipates when he might find himself out in the cold and he prepares accordingly.

This has never been a strong suit for me, and I’ll give just a couple of illustrations.

Several years ago, I was exercising regularly and visiting multiple gyms. One day I decided to work out at what was then Urban Active in Bellevue during what I guess you could call a mild snowstorm. (This was back when snow was still a thing in Northern Kentucky.)

Anyway, on my way home from the gym, I ran into some car trouble and found myself stranded. Here I was, wearing gym shorts and a T-shirt. I had only expected to run into the gym and then back to the car, so I hadn’t even bothered with a fleece Columbia jacket.

I was dressed like an idiot trying to figure out what was going on with my car. As you might imagine, I’m not particularly handy under the hood anyway, but when you can’t feel your fingers, it’s hard to do much of anything in the automotive realm.

The large walk-in coolers you see in gas stations are perfect for keeping beer, soda and milk cold until you buy it. As the Man Scout learned the hard way, they’re less optimal for sleeping.

Another time I wasn’t prepared for the cold was back when I was in college working at the SuperAmerica gas station in Cold Spring.

I was on the night shift after a full day of classes and, if memory serves me correctly, maybe a Reds game. I arrived at 10 p.m., and soon started with my nightly chores. First up was stocking the beer and the milk in the walk-in cooler, so in I went.

It had been a long day, and I was pretty tired, so even though it was pretty chilly in the cooler at around 35-40 degrees, I decided to push an empty milk crate against the back wall and rest for a couple minutes before restocking. It wasn’t the first time I’d done this – the night shift is long and boring, and sometimes you have to pick your spots.

Well the next thing I know, my co-worker, Sal, is shaking me awake and warning me that our manager has just shown up. She’d been known to pop in unannounced overnight from time to time, so I wasn’t too surprised.

But then Sal informed me that it was 6 a.m.

I’d fallen asleep there on that milk crate and slept for nearly eight hours in almost freezing temperatures. I remember Sal putting his hands on my cheeks and saying, “Oh. You’re so cold.”

I tried to stand up, but my head was foggy, my legs were jelly and my body just wouldn’t cooperate. Sal helped me to the men’s restroom, and I used the hand drier to get my blood pumping again. I clocked out, drove home and slept for 24 hours. I just wasn’t prepared for a night sleeping in the cooler.

So as the coldest days of winter approach, a friendly reminder from The Man Scout to dress in layers, buy yourself a nice water-repellant jacket and try to keep dry this winter.

And that’s my good turn daily.

Chris Cole is Director of Enterprise Communications at Sanitation District No. 1 and a deacon at Plum Creek Christian Church in Butler. He lives in Highland Heights with his wife, Megan. The Man Scout chronicles Cole’s journey to acquiring some of the skills of the head, the heart and the hand he failed to learn as a child of the 1980s growing up in Newport. His field guide: a 1952 Boy Scouts Handbook he found on eBay.


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