A Bit Cold

Today, it was cold.  Bitter cold.  It was because of the wind.  The high for today was negative seven in the Twin Cities.  That's not too bad.  With the wind, the real feel was around negative thirty five.  THAT was bad.  The sun was out, it looked beautiful, until you got into the wind.  It cut through my wool coat like it was a wimpy little wind breaker.  Despite these facts, I was okay with it being that cold.  It's what winter is all about.  Even if it was too cold to snow.

With all that said, there was no point in leaving the house today (unless work was involved).  I was surprised at the amount of people that were out and about.  Just to go shopping.  If I learned anything growing up in the Upper Peninsula, it's that going out in the bitter cold is no fun.  Our parents weren't mean enough to send us out in the negative temperatures so I am not going to sit here and tell everyone how hardcore we were going out and playing in an environment that a tauntaun would shy away from.  I will tell you I do remember having a lot of indoor recesses as a kid because of the cold.  The last thing a school district wanted to deal with was kids having frost bite just because the teaching staff needed a little break from all the kids.  

Maybe it is because I am much older and no longer a kid, but I recall winter being more hardcore.  Snow hills are no longer as impressive as a thirty year old.  We spent a lot of time sledding as kids.  We lived by a Michigan Bell and every year they made two snow hills when they cleared their parking lots.  And every year we went back there sledding.  The great thing about it was that every year, the sledding runs were different.  You had to make the sledding runs at the beginning of the winter.  And if there was a huge snow storm, they dumped more snow and maybe would mess up the runs that were made.  Then the fun started all over again as we tried to make new runs. 

Because of growing up in the winter epicenter of Michigan (if not the WORLD!), I love the cold.  Still love the cold and always will.  Even if it means my car won't start and ice forms on my beard when I walk outside.