We have tons of snow, and the kids are dying to make a snowman. But there’s not enough “bundling up” to be had to make me send them out in minus-10 degrees and 40 mph winds … you know … a blizzard. (I don’t care what the Norwegians and Swedes say: “No bad weather, only bad clothes.” Yeah, whatever.)
I know I’ve said it before, but … brrrrrrrrr!
Christmas past
Christmas present (snow day #2)
… with jaw-dropping (or -locking) 30-degree-below-zero windchill.
Is that even legal?
Well, it shouldn’t be.
Well … sort of.
It’s our first snow day.
My car tells me the outside temperature. If it could talk like my GPS, though, I think it would have a lot more to say about the current state of arctic affairs. (I keep expecting my GPS to start screaming at me, instead of calmly repeating, “calculating route,” over and over and over again when I don’t do what she tells me to do.)
It’s amazing to watch the inside-the-garage temperature drop to outside-brrr temperature … 30 degrees in two minutes … when I drive to school every day.
It’s almost like watching the stock market.
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Sorry I haven’t blogged for a while, but I’ve been busy freezing. No, not freezing, as in preserving apples and putting them in the freezer. Just freezing. As in … brrrr.
When this coldness started — before the snow in October — and I was bundled up in my brand-spankin’ new winter coat, someone wearing sandals walked up to me, leaned in and said, “This isn’t cold yet.” Gee, thanks. (He knew I just moved here from Florida. Maybe the Arctic Circle winter gear in September was the tip-off.)
The amazing this is … 8 degrees makes 20 degrees feel bearable, 20 makes 32 feel almost comfortable, and 32 makes 40 feel downright balmy. That explains the folks I see wearing shorts. Well, no, not really. Nothing explains that. But, in a way, I can see now how 50 degrees feels like it’s time to break out the T-shirts and shorts, where 50 degrees in Tampa had me scrambling for my coat.
I shouldn’t be surprised by the cold. I mean, I grew up in the Midwest. I should know better, right? But something in the brain shuts down and forgets. It’s like when I first moved to Florida, I went swimming in the ocean in December. Heck, after a record-breaking frigid Midwestern winter, it felt tropical to me. People who lived there thought I was crazy. By the next December, I was wearing my winter coat just like the rest of them.
Early on, I was impressed by how warm the house here stayed. Hmm, must be the new windows, and maybe the insulation is good, I thought. It’s a brick house. That probably helps.
Well, that was all before the temperature dropped below 20 outside. Then it was just darn cold everywhere, even in the house. So I started wearing my Winter Silks long johns, the ones I hadn’t worn (hadn’t had to wear) since living in Norway. I wear them all the time now. In fact, I’m wearing them right now. Is that TMI?
And I totally cheated and opened my Christmas gift from Norway early. (Shhh! Don’t tell the kids.) It’s a new winter dyne for my bed … sort of like a duvet, but better. Oh, what a wonderful difference it makes to stay nice and toasty at night. I knock Norwegians for a lot of things, but this one they got right. Well, they didn’t actually invent the dyne … they’re all over Europe. Norwegians like to brag about inventing the paper clip, yadda yadda. But if they want credit for the dyne, I’ll give it to them.
Today’s weather in Tampa: Sunny, high of 80 degrees, low of 61 degrees, current temperature 73 degrees, feels like 75 degrees
Today’s weather here: Snow, high of 36 degrees, low of 29 degrees, current temperature 32 degrees, feels like 32 degrees
40-year-old: “What have we done?”
6-year-old: “This is the BEST DAY EVER!”
I’m going out of town for a while.
As long as the weather doesn’t delay or cancel everything or — worse — kick our butts to a hotel we can’t afford near the airport or — even worse — force us to sleep on the plastic chairs at the airport and lick goldfish-cracker crumbs from the bottom of plastic bags for breakfast, lunch and dinner … we should be good.
A wonderful group of guest-bloggers will keep the blogfires burning while I’m away.
Stay tuned … see you next year!
Had I known a heat wave would follow me to D.C., I’d have taken you instead of my wool sweater and turtlenecks. This was not just any old heat wave. It was a week of record-high temperatures — oh, say, 90-something degrees — that started the minute I landed at the airport and ended the minute my departing plane left the ground. I think I even heard on the radio, “… we will have hellishly hot weather this week, and we expect a cold front to move in when — and only when — Becky leaves town.”
But back to you, dear sandals. I have three sets of blisters all over my feet from each of the three pairs of other shoes I took with me. Yes, even my tennis shoes. Maybe they’re just mad at me for not wearing them unless I leave the state. Whatever the case, my feet have never been happier to see you.
