It ain’t cold till the snow squeaks, and, believe me, the snow today makes more noise underfoot than tin man on a tile floor. It’s 17-below at the Outpost and that’s flat-out temperature. Factor in wind, and the chill is minus-31. For anybody who experiences cold or snow primarily on the Weather Channel, cold snow squeaks, because Arctic-like chill has squeezed out every microdrop of moisture. You’d have to warm this stuff on the stove to make snowballs. Thursday afternoon, you could watch ice crystals form in the air.
Perhaps the bleakest part of the morning was waking The Senator for school at 6:20 a.m., when he was sound asleep—and Channels 4, 5 and 11 failed to report his school being closed or delayed today, as were many in Minnesota. He was up quickly and without complaint albeit not cheerfully.
The Senator remained quiet as we sat in my car at the end of the driveway, waiting for the school bus to arrive shortly after 7 a.m. Talk about a lonesome look, the bus headlights coming into view down the gravel road in pitch dark. Anyway, parental units, your older son got off to school just fine today.
The Governor remains asleep at 8:06, and he will be allowed to select his own time to rejoin the wide-awake club. This is not giving in; he got to watch Spiderman after The Senator went to bed at the school-day hour of 8 p.m. Besides, it remains a good principle not to poke awake the lion. (We had one meltdown Thursday afternoon, and it was a beauty—straight out of central casting. This situation was remedied by a late afternoon nap, which explains the later bedtime.)
Hoocher gets all excited when anybody puts on a coat, because he’s apparently hard-wired to want to go outside. Once outside, he’s quite happy to take care of business and get back into the heated comfort of home.
When The Senator returns from kindergarten at noon today, it’s ino the city for everybody, including Hoocher. We’re hoping The Senator and Governor can have some time with their cousins as we await the parents’ re-introduction to responsibility.
Posted by Professor at January 14, 2005 08:26 AMMuch too cold for this Southern boy.
I firmly believe that snow looks wonderful on mountain tops - and should stay there.
Posted by: aelfheld at January 14, 2005 10:22 AM