Good morning! Good morning! What a gorgeous December day we have in store for us.
I wanted to kick off the show with a book recommendation.
Rough Sleepers by Tracy Kidder (same author of Paul Farmer’s story in Mountains Beyond Mountains). Tracy followed Dr. Jim O’Connell (for 5 years!) as he and the heroic street medicine team in Boston cared for the homeless. You will learn about some incredible survivors on the streets along with very special nurses, doctors, and other healthcare providers who will undoubtedly inspire you. It’s on quite a few best of ’23 lists.
Next, we would like to thank the wonderful team at the Movement is Life Summit who included us in their important, high-yield conference in D.C. last week. Your plenary speakers and everyone involved was phenomenal. Thank you!
Finally, for the growing number of you who are vegan or plant-curious, here’s some really good news this week.
Next, with it being early December, let’s visit some thoughts on layering our clothes for these winter months.
My apologies for the nonrelevance to our colleagues from Hilo, HI to Pakistan, and all the other warm locales in between. By the way, welcome to our new friends in Lahore and Islamabad!
Okay, back to Elsa and Olaf.
As our children’s pediatrician, Dr. Bolton said at our Saturday walk,
“No such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes.”
Let’s keep it simple.
Base – a while ago a friend told me about Ice Breaker Merino. This stuff is definitely nice but I find it stupidly expensive ($80-100) and I find it to now be unnecessary. Costco has 32 Degree brand tops and bottoms that I find to work perfectly. They’re around 7 dollars/piece.
Middle – fleece, sweatshirt, or down coat maybe. FWIW, I’ve been wearing one of those puffy coats for years in this role; they’re worth their weight in gold to me. It’s shredded and leaking down but you can’t tell because of the shell.
Shell – protects from the wind and rain and is the critical 3rd piece on the days we’re braving the elements.
Finally, a warm hat covering our ears and mittens that generate all that heat by keeping our fingers together.
At our office, most of us have our friends with a cardiac history use a scarf or mask over their mouths to warm the air coming in and protect their faces.
Please know when you’re contemplating the treadmill or the safe, dry sidewalk, there are significant health benefits of being outside, even in colder weather.
You are amazing.
Have a beautiful weekend, you have most definitely earned it.
david