Temperature Cut Off for Excursions

We do have a temperature below which I won't send Mom to FRA, -30F.  By that I mean that it may be colder than that early in the morning, but the highs aren't expected to be too much colder than -30F.  Should anything happen, an accident, a flat tire, or anything that required Mom to be exposed to the cold for any length of time, it would easily become life threatening in a matter of minutes. Mom would not know what to do to protect herself.

An example of that is in her choice of gloves. She wore gloves she'd had forever for years here.  They weren't warm enough.  So for Christmas, Teresa bought her some wool gloves and then two sets of mittens.  One pair of mittens are also wool, and would provide protection at slightly colder temperatures than what is safe for the wool gloves, and those two combined provide yet another level of protection.  A second pair of mittens, when drawn over the wool gloves provide the maximum.

Mom refused to wear the mittens.  There is no way she will accept that mittens are wamer than gloves.  She doesn't like them.

We also bought her a new hat and a new coat.  She loves the hat, but is having issues with the coat.  It is long, its rated to -50F and a lovely shade of periwinkle blue.  The coat reaches down below her boots, so she is not exposed to direct cold throughout her body.

Her coats were always beige with collars.  She put her poodle pin and whatever else she favored on the labels of her other coats. This coat doesn't have a true lapel and she fussed and worried about it all weekend, finally putting it away in the closet because it made her unhappy.  She is no longer bracing her thin little body against the cold when she walks outside to get in the car, but she doesn't truly notice that.  I notice it, but in her mental state, it doesn't register she is safer and more comfortable.

Marilyn is ill today, so we picked her up.  As I watched her come out with Gary I saw this petite, woman coming toward me.  Her wool felted hat was secure upon her head.  Her coat was fully zipped up and snapped all the way down.  She had her wool gloves on.  As she walked toward the car, I suddenly realized she really looked like an Alaskan elder should look - totally bundled up, moving carefully through pounds of down!