Yes, it’s all too much for me. The cold, the winds, the snow, the new administration. Bears have the right idea. Step 1: Eat up and put on “winter weight”. Ok, I’ve done some of that, particularly over Christmas and New Year’s, but probably not enough to get me through until April. I will need to restock from time to time. Step 2: Crawl into a warm place and sleep for . . . . . . I’ll have to get up at intervals to eat more or use the bathroom. Who cares, really, if a groundhog sees its shadow. Winter is stretching on endlessly. Tonight, another prediction of snow, turning to freezing rain and icing by tomorrow morning. And one or two more “weather episodes” next week. In between, there are cold temperatures and blustery, windy unpleasantness. It’s all too much.
OK, full disclosure, it’s not quite as bad as I describe it, because I don’t have to go out. The snow is plowed and shoveled for us. I could order in food if I so choose. I haven’t had that big lottery win yet, so we can’t go on television to pick out a “lottery dream home”. Or fly south for the winter. Then again, what’s there if we did? Snowstorms in the South, from Louisiana to the Carolinas. Hurricanes sweeping in off the Atlantic are devastating the southern East Coast. Tornedos in the Midwest and parts of the South. Heavy snows in the Central plain states. And in California, torrential rains and mudslides have replaced the wildfires. It’s like the earth has said, “I’ve had enough of you people!” Even warm, sunny Southern France, a selected destination, is experiencing flooding.
I’ve often wondered about the sanity of those folks driving tractor-trailer trucks across frozen expanses, snow-laden wind drifting across the road. There’s a show called, “Life Below Zero”. Interesting, but not for me. My real first recollection of extreme cold is watching “Dr. Zhivago”, where he’s escaping across the frigid landscape, his beard coated in ice. I had nightmares about that scene, thinking I’d never warm up again. My bloodstream permanently frozen, all feeling in extremities gone forever. No number of warm baths or piles of warm blankets would ever revive me. How on earth did people centuries ago live in those castles in the winter? I don’t think I could get close enough to the fireplace without actually being in it.
Even the pets around here are wearing warm clothes. I’ve seen dogs in sweaters, coats, hats, and earmuffs, out walking with their owners. The owners don’t look terribly happy about it either. At regular intervals, our daughter suggests that we get a dog. Yes, it would be nice cuddling at our feet. But then, outside to walk in a blizzard. A definite downside. For those that follow this blog faithfully, you may recall a little item posted a few years back called “The Art of the Nap”. It’s, if I do say so myself, a brilliant piece on maximizing the nap experience. Afternoon provides the optimal time for “resting”, and hibernation is merely a logical extension of that. Humans aren’t really adapted to round-the-clock sleeping, although there are some that give it good run – teenagers, for example. But for most of us, we get up and do stuff for a while. Then we go back, and in truth, there’s no better feeling than getting under blankets or a puffy quilt when the wind is howling and snow is drifting outside.
We’ve had one of those storms this past weekend that promotes hunkering down. It started Saturday night with fairly heavy snow, and continued off and on through Sunday. I noticed that the plowing and shoveling crews came by mid-day, but they’ll be back today to start over. This was a storm that ran the gamut from quality snow to freezing drizzle to sleet and freezing rain. Last night, I thought we had a mouse in the wall because I heard scratching – and then realized it was sleet hitting the window behind me. Somehow, the sleety, freezing rain really spoils the effect, because it’s more hazardous for those that have to go out (and I’m not one!), but it also spoils the sheer elegance of a snowbank or the magical quality of the big, fluffy snowflakes drifting down. The last couple of years have been “snow lite”, but this year, there are piles everywhere.
Our daughter used to watch the plowing in DC with amusement on the occasions that they actually received plowable snow. Of course, the city only had about a half dozen pieces of equipment to take care of it, as compared to Boston’s hundreds. A couple of inches of snow would shut down the government faster than DOGE, and keep it shut for days, weeks even. They tended to plow the snow from the streets onto the sidewalks, making foot traffic impossible, and everything much worse. What northern cities all know is that you plow it into the center of the street, and then scoop it up into dump trucks and take it away.
Some people feel trapped when they can’t get out. I remember from my time on the condo board that a few residents complained when the driveways and walkways weren’t cleared by dawn, when they said they needed to leave for work. My thought was . . . . really? We just had a foot of snow, and your employer is expecting you to get to work on time? I can understand if you work in a coffee shop or other essential service that needs to be opened, then, ok. Even a supermarket. But if you’re going to an office? What is going on with these people? One would think that a lesson learned from the pandemic is that at least some could work from home on snowy days. Keep people off the streets. A report from the New Hampshire State Police indicated that there were over 400 accidents in the last 24 hours. What were these people doing out, particularly on a Sunday? Stay home, everyone. Go into semi-hibernation. The only people that should be out are the ones running the snowplows. You had to be preparing for this, because you were all in the grocery store on Friday when I was. Buying up all the de-icer and huge quantities of water. Something about an impending snowstorm makes everyone really, really thirsty.
I mentioned earlier that I see pets all dressed up in the winter finery. Why don’t humans do the same thing? While shopping the other day, and it was a truly blustery day – cold and windy, I couldn’t help noticing a young man wearing shorts and a t-shirt. As the supermarket doesn’t have a coat check, I’ll assume that he came in from outside that way. I was tempted to ask about the thought process involved here, but decided not to. He’d probably give me that stock answer, “I don’t feel the cold.” You should. I could explain that our evolution from apes involved a significant loss of fur. We also discovered centuries ago that unchecked hair growth promoted lice, ticks, and other spreaders of disease, leading to the Black Plague and other large-scale killers. Therefore, these conditions, changing our exposure, and resistance to cold weather, which is far greater now than when prehistoric man roamed the planet. Even Neanderthals knew enough to wear animal fur to keep warm. You didn’t see them out in skimpy shorts and t-shirts, if those early photos and cave drawings are anything to go by.
I’m reminded of the English Christmas Carol, “In the Bleak Midwinter”. I don’t feel that in December, but I certainly do now. Here we are – it is bleak, and we’re only in mid-winter. Another six weeks to two months of snow, ice, and wintery weather. Yes, I’ll stay inside as much as possible. A cup of coffee and a good book, an expanded nap schedule, and I may be able to get through it. If not, somebody call me in early April.
I'm Thinking...No! 