It's freakin' freezing up here!

As the weather gets colder and the days get shorter, it is interesting to see how the locals adapt. Mostly, they put on a sweater.
Really, that's about it - it hovers around the freezing mark for most of the day, but people continue to ride bikes all around town, start road construction work and run their outdoor kiosk businesses like it was a balmy August day of 60 degrees.
It is something to see the bikers - mostly they bundle up like slightly more fashionable Michelin men, with the comical addition of flashing lights attached to their helmets (Like modern-day propeller beanies) and other various parts of their bikes and their gear. But there they are, riding off to their various destinations in the dark of the morning and the dark of the evening... I am told you can get studded snow tires for bicycles, but possibly the person telling me that was teasing. I am notoriously gullible about things like that - I believed for an entire month that the second Van Halen lineup was going to be called Van Hagar. (Well, it sounded reasonable!) Anyway, this is all fine now that the flurries we have been getting aren't really accumulating, but it will be interesting to see what they do when it really starts snowing - as a rule, Anchorage doesn't shovel its walks and it's illegal to ride bikes in the street. Although, as I believe I've mentioned before, people basically do what they want regardless of petty impediments like laws.
Also, the kiosks. You would not believe how many coffee shacks and hot dog stands and BBQ sheds and God knows what else are situated around this city. There is a stunningly excellent Greek kiosk up the street from my work - Zorba's- no, I am not making this up. I expected these places to start shutting down when the average temperature dropped, but not so much. There they are, working away in the dark of the early morning and the dark of the evening. I would have thought the workers would be freezing in there, after all they can't be that well insulated, and they are constantly opening and closing the little windows. Then you look in, and the place is staffed by a stick-thin girl who is fortified against the cold with a sweater.
As for the road construction, well, when Art started his job, he was told Alaska has two seasons - winter and construction. As it is turning out so far this year, there's just construction. People at work have been bitterly complaining, because now they have to watch out for moose and construction workers far past when they feel this should be the case. Well, they could always just ride their bikes.