We are no strangers to winter, the Prof, my husband, and I. Though he was born in Florida and I was born in California, we’ve lived in the upper midwest for over forty years. We know snow. And ice. And frost. And all that stuff.
But this past week has been one of the more memorable ones we’ve endured (and I use the term ‘endured’ advisedly). On Monday when we went outside in the morning, it was –19 Fahrenheit (all future temps will be in Fahrenheit. I have to do Celsius in my head. I can’t do that and write a blog post at the same time] on the front porch. The snow squeaked when we walked on it. And it had been snowing for, literally, days. Usually when it is that cold the skies are clear and there’s not a lot of moisture in the air.
Not this year. This year the humidity was 75%. The cold went through us like knives. When it got up to –2 we walked the dogs. They went willingly, but for once they were quite happy to get back home.
The next morning the skies cleared. The snow still squeaked. The stars were brilliant [at 6:30 in the morning]. And the thermometer on the front porch said –24. We didn’t bother to take the dogs out that day. Or the next. It never even got to zero.
Today?
The remedy for this is, short of a vacation in Florida or Texas or some place else warm, to sit up in my office and write about summer in New York, which is what I’m doing. My heroine has just tipped her kayak into a Brooklyn marina in the East River. She’s shivering. I’ve just told her that she doesn’t know what cold is.
But it’s not a bad way to cope – to think your way out of situations that you can’t change. My editor appreciates that I’m working in dire conditions (though how dire can it be when I only have to walk into the other room? I don’t even have to scrape the windshield first.) Besides, it’s far cheaper than a trip to Florida, the Prof says.
What are you up to this winter? Or summer if you are down under where I understand from the news that bats are falling out of the sky due to excessive heat. Give me ice any day!
Credits:
icicles: Barfooz at the English language Wikipedia [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons
4 comments:
I'm just trying to stay warm. I do hope it snows a little bit more. I know my son would like to do more sledding but it's not safe because it's all ice outside. So a bit more snow should help!
We are just trying to stay cool here in QLD. We got up to 41 degrees Celsius on Saturday which is approx 106 degrees Fahrenheit. The Summer storms have brought it down a touch the past few days.
Well, I was happy with the retreat of the Polar Vortex... but I heard it was returning... I'm grateful that we didn't lose power or had water pipes burst!
Well we finally have some nice days to get outside. We've basically had nothing but ice, snow and extreme cold since the first day of winter. Since I have RA the cold is a little hard on me. I think the upcoming week is supposed to be fairly decent, I can't wait.
Post a Comment