Some people don't mind cold. He might like it. It doesn't bother me particularly, unless I'm caught out in running shorts and a t-shirt coming from the gym on one of our cold days, and I miss the bus.

Maybe he just wanted some fresh air. My friend and I were leaving the gym this morning, and as we walked out the door, she said "Yes! Fresh AIR! That's what I needed. Do you notice how the air in the gym is always so, I don't know, cloying?" Could be that the guy's apartment is really warm or the air is stale or something, and he just needed to get some fresh. The more I think about the air in the gym, though, the more I'm tempted to talk to the manager and suggested he put some plants in there. Ya know, everyone's working out and expelling a lot of CO2, maybe having plants in there would clean the air a little, add a little O2 or something?

I think people can adjust. Yesterday was actually not very cold. I think it was upper 30's/lower 40's right? At least it was here in Boston.

41 degrees, right now, feels relatively warm. I was taking the puppy outside to pee wearing just a long-sleeved shirt and a vest. I was hot walking home from work in my winter coat.

So. I think this guy probably didn't feel it was too bad and needed some air. Being stuck inside when it's *actually* cold (20s or below, add some wind and then you have my sympathy) means you run outside the second it's not painful to do so, and attempt to carry on with life as you might during spring/summer/fall. If you like to write outside, why not do it during a little reprieve from frost-bite inducing cold?

Yes, 30-40 is almost balmy! The other week, when it was 9, now that hurt!

~~~

Otherwise, there is Family Guy ...

Chris: Meg, you are so full of crap. You're like those people who sit in Starbucks and publicly write on their laptops.

*(Scene with two guys typing on their laptops in Starbucks)*

Guy #2: Hey, getting some writing done there buddy?

Guy #1: Yeah, setting up in public so everybody can watch me type my big screenplay.

Guy #2: Me too. All real writers need to be seen writing otherwise what's the point, right?

Guy #1: You should totally write that down!

Guy #2: Okay, will you watch me?

~~~

(not on youtube, try to imagine it)

My guess is plain ol' cabin fever. Depending on which buildings you live and work in, it's easily possible in Manhattan to go for weeks at a time without ever setting foot outdoors. I'm not a big-time outdoorsman, but after a few days cooped up in the house, I gotta have some fresh air.

And if the laptop is like most are these days, it's probably doing a good job of keeping his legs warm.

Me, I'm going with the nagging wife. It's hard to get any serious web surfing done when you are barraged with a constant stream of "Honey could yous"...

"You know what?" he says. "Why don't I take the laptop, er, kid for a walk?"

I'll bet he found Wi-Fi hotspot and figured it was a good time to take a break.

The girl walking in his direction doesn't seem to be particularly cold. No hat, no gloves(from the look of it); I think they just don't feel that cold.

If you're just walking a few blocks, it's not too bad. It was really cold. I went up to my friends' place for dinner, up on 97 and Riverside, and my friend ended up giving me one of the shirts she doesn't wear so I'd have another layer. Best of all, it's really cute and she doesn't want me to mail it back to her! (All's brittlely cold, ends fashionably!)

It was pretty nice yesterday. Not too cold at all. I'm in Jersey, so weather's pretty much like NYC.

I'm in Philly, and I'm gonna agree and say it was warm in the region. I think us Northeasterners are acclimated!

I think you are used to California warmth because yesterday was a beautiful day in NY! I didn't need heat on in my car or house and left my doors open! I think this man probably was happy to be able to be out after all the frigid weather we've had! Gotta love New Yorkers!

So forget the cold. Some guy takes his baby out in a stroller, parks it on the sidewalk, and plops down with his laptop.

Those New York babies are so compliant. My baby never would have put up with that. Not even asleep.

I'm pretty tolerant of the cold. What can make NYC feel chillier than the surrounding region are the winds, and the fact that there's often not direct sunlight at street level. Also if I'm in town, it's going to rain hard.

MeganNJ beat me to the punch.

But you want cold, try swimming in 35 degree water before dawn in Febuary at 9000 ft as a snowstorm drops out of the Rockies

My sister was born in New York. At that time, they thought fresh air was vital to a baby's health. Nurses took her outside in the winter before she was even one day old.

I'm originally a S. California girl, so this seems crazy to me, but perhaps some people still do it.

Heh, my family in MA had an annual Thanksgiving Day swim tradition... run out the back door, hop into the lake, swim three strokes, run back. The most painful part was not the swimming, it was the running barefoot over the cold lawn!

Yay to Polar Bear swimmers!

Yesterday, the wind had fangs.

The coldest winter I ever spent was summer in San Francisco. - Mark Twain

Just thought I'd throw that in. We don't talk enough about Mark Twain.

I lived in NYC from September 1967 to May 1979...okay with a year in Westchester while I tried teaching to stay out of Vietnam...and cold? Man it could get wild...Amy...you know how it can be...but your body adjusts...yeah, 40 degrees is a balmy day in January...I grew up in Buffalo, NY...Lake Effect and all that jive...now I'm in Denver (remember me...Westword and so foat?)...this person is a pragmatist with a fetish for "clean" air...or a closet infant sadist...

Two Words: Cabin Fever....

I'm from the west coast and I don't mind the 20s/30s when I'm in NYC. So long as I'm layered with my thermals and have a proper coat, hat, gloves & scarf, all is ok. I used to forgo taking the cab and subway and walk the 1.5 miles to work. I loved being outdoors and seeing how stylish New Yorkers are, even in cold weather.

There was a Reader's Digest article several years back about a teacher who moved to a city in AK that is above the Arctic Circle. He was saying that by the third year there he was walking around in March in a windbreaker and jeans. The Inuit kids were playing baseball in short sleeve t-shirts before school. It was 31 degrees.

The human body is amazingly adaptable.

Our first weeks of January in Ohio had a high of 29. We get to 40, and I was sweating with a medium weight jacket, jeans and a long sleeve t-shirt weight shirt.

That's a man? Huh.

*try swimming in 35 degree water before dawn in Febuary at 9000 ft as a snowstorm drops out of the Rockies*

Only if I break through the ice. Yikes.