Bloomington freezes

Bone-chilling temperatures have made life hard on everyone.\n"It's hard to know how to dress," said freshman Tarah Culbertson. "You want to dress really warm, but when you get in the classroom you are usually too warm." \nCulbertson was sitting in the Indiana Memorial Union eating her lunch in a fleece headband, a scarf and her down winter coat. She had taken her gloves off only long enough to finish her pizza.\nThe past few days IU and much of the state has seen snow, ice and uncomfortably low temperatures. Temperatures on Wednesday and Thursday were below-freezing and the cold weather has seemed to affect sales on campus.\nSophomore Hillary Morrow, who works at Sugar and Spice in the Union, said the coffee and confections store has been selling a lot more mochas, capuccinos, lattés, coffee and tea. \n"The capuccino machine has been running non-stop this week," Morrow said.\nDavid Nichols and Jonas Parks are both painters working outside on Maxwell Hall. Both men had on three layers of clothes. Wearing so many layers makes it difficult for them to maneuver, while the cold weather affects their paint, they said. \n"Many times, the paint falls off when the weather warms up and we have to come back and do the job again," Nichols said.\nOther IU employees have also been having trouble with the snow and cold weather. Custodial manager Roy Robertson said his employees have been spending less time on details and more time on the messes caused by the snow. One of the main weapons custodians use against the messy snow is a machine that wets the floor and then recovers the water and dirt that was on the floor. Before the snow, the machine was used once a day, and on snow days the machine is used up to four times. \n"It just keeps us busy," Robertson said. "We will probably not reclaim the IMU until after spring break."\nRobertson also said the academic buildings don't have custodians that work day shifts. Therefore, the academic building floors show more of a mess from the snow than the IMU. \nAccording to the IU Police Department, the snow and cold weather has not had a negative effect on driving conditions. \n"The cold weather didn't affect things at all," said Lt. Jerry Minger. "There was already sand on the roads before the snow even started falling." \nAccording to the National Center for Environmental Health, two common health concerns related to cold weather are frostbite and hypothermia. Frostbite is an injury caused by freezing, which results in a loss of feeling in the affected area. It most commonly affects the nose, ears, cheeks, chin, fingers or toes. \nHypothermia is a more serious medical condition and requires immediate medical care. It is caused by prolonged exposure to cold. After a long period of time the body will use up all of its stored energy, resulting in a very low body temperature. If the body temperature is low enough, brain damage will occur. \nThe Weather Channel Web site reported that Thursday's high was only 10 degrees. It is expected to stay cold through the weekend. The temperature is expected to rise to 48 degrees on Tuesday.