I have a theory about a human “anti-freeze” phenomenon . It is based on my experience with winter and living my entire life in the northern hemisphere. Those of us who live where the snow falls and temperatures can drop into -30C to -40C range (and colder if you factor in windchill), well, we learn about dressing warmly. We have anti-freeze in our car’s windshield washer fluid. We buy fleece lined vests and woollen socks and down-filled gear.
The Theory
When winter first takes its place out our front door we shiver and shudder. We find it very cold and we begrudge putting on the layers and the winter boots and the scarves and hats and on and on. Then gradually, we become used to it and it doesn’t feel so cold. My theory is we have some human anti-freeze that builds as winter progresses. It makes the cold tolerable.
The Bad News
Due to a design error, our human antifreeze does not have a very long shelf life. It starts to dissipate somewhere around the end of January. Slowly it ebbs away. If our bodies came with fluid level lights (like our vehicles do) the low-level anti-freeze light would start to flash. And then it feels cold no matter whether the temperature is moderating or not. I recently read an article that put forward a hypothesis about why it feels colder as winter starts to exit. It wasn’t an “ah ha!” moment for me. I prefer my anti-freeze theory. Those of you have lived or do live in colder climates-do you think you run out of tolerance for cold as winter ebbs? Tell me it’s so.
What can you do?
Think of something else: here’s a few pictures of some things that took my mind off thinking I was cold this past week.
A sunny day, mid-week snowshoe with a friend and a tremendously tasty dinner cooked by my husband. Oven roasted potatoes and brussel sprouts along with a braised beef tenderloin topped with a blue cheese/thyme/breadcrumb dressing in a red wine reduction sauce.
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What can I say? It was outstanding. Who cares about the temperature outside. It’s likely all in my head anyway.
Barb's True Stories 
I never had much tolerance for winter. Here it is lack of sunlight that gets me. Cloudy too much of the time. How is it in Ottawa? You are in the snow belt but does the sun shine much like in the picture?
We do get sunshine but it’s not as sunny as SK. Grey skies seem to be fairly routine here too. As far as snow, those who have lived here a long time say winters have changed. There used to be a lot more snow. Now we are subjected to a great deal of freeze/thaw and freezing rain and ice. But when the sun does shine, it is glorious.