Sunday, January 5, 2014

After a While, It's Just Cold

(FYI: If you usually only read one post at a time, you may want to notice that Friday's post didn't go up until just before this one did. Not sure why it got stuck in the "draft" stage.)

I fully admit that, after having heard for the past week about the Polar Vortex that we're feeling the effects of beginning this weekend, we've come to a point that it just sounds ridiculous.

I mean... The idea of -25 degrees below (Fahrenheit) doesn't really compute. The idea of a -45-degree windchill seems insane. The fact that most of Minnesota is going to leave the house and go to work like it's a bright spring day is just bonkers.

So tonight, when I walked the dog and it was -11, it just felt cold. Cold as all get-out. Cold enough that neither the dog nor I wanted to stay outside longer than necessary. But not earth-shatteringly cold. Just cold.

At the same time, I saw on the news, today, that something like 60% of the lower-48 states is going to be below 32 degrees in the next day or so. About 20% will be below zero at one point or another.

While being up to 32 sounds like absolute heaven to some of us (it was almost 20, yesterday, and while I was out shopping I had my coat open and saw other people with no coats on at all), it truly does boggle my mind that areas in central Texas and central Florida will probably be below freezing.

Around here, we've all been saying "we just have to make it to Wednesday" (which is when we're next supposed to get back above zero), and I heard someone on the news today say "in three months we'll be on our way to spring."

And, of course, at that point, we'll also be about 7 months from putting the Christmas decorations back up. With a brand new "remember how cold it was last January?" story to tell.

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