Wintering Out

Yesterday was an important day in my life.  I survived SURVIVED the coldest temperatures I’ve ever been exposed to.  When I woke up, the temperature was -2 with a nasty windchill that I won’t speak of for fear it might return.  When I left my apartment, it had warmed all the way up to 4 degrees.  By the middle of the afternoon, we hit a balmy 13 degrees, and then it slid back down to single digits after the sun set.  Now, you know that a Texas girl knows just what to do when the thermometer spikes the other way but doesn’t have much opportunity to learn what to do in this situation, so I’ll understand if you’re asking yourself how in the world I made it through.  I’m going to share with you the secrets to my success.

1. Goose down.  Lots of it.

I bought this parka with a sense of urgency brought on by a mortal fear of the 11 degree high in the weather forecast.  I got a great deal on it, too.  It’s an extra-large.  I am not an extra-large, but the great thing about bulky coats is that it doesn’t really matter if it’s to big or not.  And this one is comfy and I love love love it.  I would like now to compose an ode to it, but that would take to long, so I’ll try a haiku:

White coat filled with down

You keep me warm and cozy

Wearable blanket.

If you’ve ever lived in a place where temperatures reach an unholy low, you might understand the special attachment I’ve formed with this life-saving coat.

2. Appropriate head gear. I was thankful all day for the one-two punch of my Eternal Threads hat and my coat hood.

3. Long underwear.  Jeans are simply not enough.

4. My Bear Paw boots. These are essential to my mental health these days.

5. A scarf.  I wore my lovely red that Jean Marsh knitted for me.  It’s my favorite shade of red. It looked nice with deep blue shirt I was wearing and peeking out from my white coat.  And it’s soft and warm and cozy.

6. I also wore this necklace to remind myself to cowgirl up.

7. Not staying outside for very long.  That’s an important one.

Truth be told, I made it through the day with very little discomfort.  It was kind of exciting.  But I’m glad the temperature is back up to normal cold today.

Sometimes Procrastination Pays Off

If you followed the national weather last week (or talked to me), you’ll know that a blizzard blew through Boston a week ago and dumped a ton of snow. When I came back on Friday, I expected to have to dig my car out from under the accumulated snow. I was right. Snow was piled up on top of, in front of, and behind my Corolla. So I decided to stop in at the hardware store around the corner and buy a snow shovel when I took Spur out for a walk. But I got up at 4:00 that morning after about four hours of sleep to catch my flight, and walking in the mud and slushy snow around the Reservoir was more of a workout than I was really expecting, and so I changed my mind and just went home. And did nothing. It was beautiful.

So then the plan was to saunter over to the hardware store on Saturday and get a shovel. You know, in the afternoon. And it was nearly 50 degrees, and it had been similarly warm for the past couple of days, so I figured that I would let then sun melt away as much as possible before I employed any physical exertion. I wouldn’t need my car before Sunday morning for church anyway. It was a good, solid plan. It had only one flaw; the hardware store was closed for New Year. I looked at CVS, but they didn’t have any shovels (I didn’t really expect them to). So I went home and did nothing. It was still beautiful.

I figured out that it would be pretty easy and fast to get to church on the T, so that was the plan. But when I looked out at my car this morning, the snow pile behind it had sufficiently melted for me to back out. And that’s just what I did. It was even more beautiful.