You know what? It's cold. What we are having even qualifies as cold in the frozen northern wastelands. I looked out my bedroom window a while ago. The deck is covered with snow, except where reluctant dogs have scrabbled it clear, but that isn't the point. There is frost on the window frame - the inside of the window frame - shades of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books where the little girls woke up in the morning nice and warm because there were two or three inches of snow on top of their quilts.
I've seen cold weather before, but there are people around here who didn't even realize that temperatures could be represented with negative numbers. I served a tour in those frozen wastelands, not an experience that I care to repeat, but I could be swapping "cold" stories with the folks who are going around saying "Well, now, I remember back in '03 up in (fill in northern wasteland of choice), when it got sooooo cold that ..." Starting to sound like that story by Jack London - "To Build a Fire." But, like all those good folks, I don't live there any longer - and being able to tell stories like that is one of the reasons I don't.
But here we sit, the temperature hasn't come within sight of freezing for two days now. May not sound like much to some people, but around here - it is simply unheard of. Schools have been closed, schools have delayed starts - never cooperatively, of course. Where I work, we have started late for the last two days, and it is already scheduled for tomorrow. The word of doom is that pipes have started bursting here and there around campus, bringing on the cry "Back up your computers, people, the water may be rising." Today, the public schools in the town where I work were closed, yesterday they just did a two hour late start. The schools in the town where I live ran a normal schedule yesterday and were closed today. Orchestra was cancelled last night, and church choir tonight. Yesterday was election day (school board election) - we always vote, but I decided I just didn't care enough to go out again - after all, my children are out of school, and I don't work for them any more.
It is even cold down deep in the heart of Texas, where my sister lives. They are looking at an overnight low of 13. Okay, that's cold - especially for the metroplex, but today our high was 12. And that is crazy cold here in the microplex. There really hasn't been all that much snow, but what there has been isn't melting. Highway 70 is clear and dry thanks to the winds that howl across these plains. The streets in town (either town) are really a mess.
This afternoon on the way home I saw some fairly spectacular artwork that had been executed by the wind. The fence on the east side of the road was drifted almost over and apparently there had been just enough sun to crust the snow on the tops of the drifts. Then the wind started up and sculpted fantastic wave forms under the crusted tops, amazing - beautiful. Not quite beautiful enough to persuade me to stop the car and take some photos - six degrees and 20 mph winds will keep me behind closed doors almost anytime, but remarkable and memorable all the same.
And another good thing: the Good Samaritan who stopped to help me this morning when my car stalled as I tried to shift from reverse into drive after backing out of my driveway. After trying to start it for several minutes, I decided that it was quite possible that someone might want to use the road - and would appreciate it if my beast was not blocking the entire roadway. I was pushing it in the general direction of the curb when a gentleman in an SUV came along. He helped me push it out of the way, and was about to offer me a lift to work until I told him where I worked. Still, he stood by until I actually got it going again. Thank you, sir; thank you very much.
