...well, you know what she is. We're into the second of the 9 Nines (What's that you say? Check
this out.) and everything I've heard/read/seen indicates it's gonna be a brutal winter. There's a special word for exceptionally bad winters:
зуд (translated as "zud" but pronounced "zude"). It literally means "winter devastation" and comes in two forms, white or black. White zud is exceptionally snowy, black is exceptionally cold. The results? Either too much snow for herds to graze and the animals starve or it's so cold the animals freeze to death. Either way, it spells economic ruin for herders, a hell of a lot of extra work for ger dwellers, and downright dangerous conditions for all. Back already this fall some Mongolians were throwing around the word "zud" and it looks like they may have been right. How they knew, I'll never know. Probably because with traditional lifeways comes a deeper connection with nature, especially the ability to read the seasons (was the previous season especially rainy? dry? hot? cold?) and make predictions. No matter how they knew, I wish they had been wrong. As you all know, there's no love lost between me and the cold weather. Just one more way PC is forcing me to change, grow, adjust...
UB Post article
National Emergency Management Agency article
As mentioned in the first article, school break has been extended for
all students in anticipation of the deadly cold. 10th & 11th grades
will get two weeks, 7th-9th grades will get three weeks, and
Kindergarten-5th grades will get five weeks. In addition to the
evacuations and extended school breaks, the government passed a special,
one-time payment of 340,000MNT ($250-260) to each elderly, disabled, or
child to (in theory) cover the extra heating costs. You should have
seen the lines at the banks!
Don't worry about me, I've got my
Columbia jacket, long johns, fleece socks and lots of hot cocoa to get me through!
Plus, that little pup of mine just happens to be the best space heater
imaginable. D'aaww!
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