There was a stable high pressure system hanging over Primorye that week and the weather was, for the most part, clear and dry; at night, the temperatures were bottoming out in the negative forties. When it gets this cold, things we take for granted start behaving in strange ways: eyelids can freeze shut; a truck’s cast iron transmission housing can shatter like a china dish. Under these circumstances, warmth takes on a significance closer to oxygen, becoming a crucial ingredient for life that must be carefully monitored and conserved. This only served to underscore the extraordinary fortitude
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