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Thursday, January 15, 2009

Brrrrrr....

It’s cold. Bitterly cold. Bone chilling, leave your taps dripping for fear they freeze, thinking about buying a Snuggie (the most blatant attack on good taste I’ve seen in awhile) cold. Negative eighteen. Negative thirty-five with wind chill to be exact.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good natural disaster (and yes, I consider this a bit of a disaster) but wow, this has all the disaster with none of the benefit. Sure the kids are off school because of the weather (apparently there is fear they might freeze solid waiting for the bus) but where does that leave me, someone who typically bases their ‘it’s too treacherous to go in’ days on whether the schools are open? A dilemma to be sure. Unfortunately I don’t have to wait for a bus (never thought I'd hear myself say that). My only hope (as I see it) lies in the ability of my car to start, or not (less than a quarter tank of gas I’m told, will freeze in this weather).

Damn German engineering. My car starts, albeit sluggishly and with protest. Sluggishly and with protest, I make my way to the office. It’s a wild ride beginning to end. Roads that mere months earlier afforded me a relatively smooth ride give way to contorted masses of asphalt heaving this way and that caught in frozen waves. I bump along in what sounds like an egg carton. Easily detected, every shift in weight causes my car to creak eerily. It’s an odd sound that breaks the otherwise silence of the day and I realize, I’m the egg.

I make it to the office later than usual having been extra careful over bridges and over-passes. I bundle up, hood and all and walk two blocks to the office where I’m greeted by a balmy fifty-five degree workspace. History tells me I’ll be lucky to reach sixty degrees in office, no matter how many illegal electric heaters I plug in.

I have never wanted to be warm more. I long for green grass, hot sand and blinding sun. Keep the faith….only 4 more months…if I’m lucky…


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2 comments:

Whitenoise said...

Minus 33C here. I share your dreams of warmth, beaches and palm trees...

The Prickly Press said...

Whitenoise: -33C huh...think I'm still winning, er, I mean losing.

Philip: blanket in the car, check. Even added some candles just in case.