Chillin' below zero

          Your loyal blogger is on full-time dog walking duty this week. Mrs. Leeway is not well.

          Today’s noontime stroll was conducted under sunny skies with the sun’s rays glinting off the snow that fell in the pre-dawn hours. The sun caught specs in the fallen snow and it looked like little diamonds sitting in spilled sugar. Really a pretty sight.

The hound and I had a brisk walk. The ambient temperature (that’s the fancy way of saying ‘air’ temperature) was one (that’s 1) degree above zero, Fahrenheit. A stiff wind was blowing and, according to weather.com, that dropped the feels-like temperature down to twenty (that’s 20) below zero. Things got a little more rugged this evening when the ambient temp registered nine (that’s 9) below zero and the wind chill slipped to minus 35.

          Let us be honest with each other here: That just sucks.

          You look for the silver lining and there really isn’t one. There simply is no intrinsic value in freeze-drying yourself in order to walk the family pet. There is no hidden benefit, no cause for smug satisfaction.

A silver lining? Forget it. The only lining worth discussing is the lining in your overcoat. You’d better have a good one. Heck, a silver lining will do you no good anyway. It would make the overcoat too heavy and it would fail to keep you warm.

I can remember my father telling us stories about coping with Midwestern winters, the things he had to do just to go to work in the morning and get home again. We roared with laughter.

Not laughing now, lemme tell ya. No sireebob.

Just trying to stay warm.

 

Thanks for reading.