Let ’s just be honest : It was cold this week . Temperatures plummeted to nigh - unbearable levels across the U.S. , thanks to the much - discussed polar swirl that moved through over a two - twenty-four hours span , shattering record - low temperature nationwide and plummeting wind chills into the negative two-fold digits .
Here in Lexington , Ky. , where the HF column office is located , we did n’t get the worst of the vortex ’s parky wrath , but my phone did clock the temperature at -3 degrees F with a wind chill of -26 degrees F Tuesday morning?definitely not what we ’re used to in the Bluegrass State . It ’s not even what I ’m used to as a Yankee organ transplant , despite grow up in northeastern Ohio and going to college in Cleveland ’s Lake Erie Snowbelt .
As I headed out to my car Monday first light , head ducked against the wind , chocolate mug trembling in my chill , gloved paw , the realization that I had to scrape a thick layer of deoxyephedrine and snow off of my windscreen in the subzero wind chill was extraordinarily unwished-for . ( As was the impendent discovery that my car ’s equipment driver ’s side door was stop dead solid — it finally thawed Thursday morning , making for some interesting car entries in the early part of the week . ) I begrudgingly scraped my car out of the glass and climb in through the passenger door , envious all the while of my Floridian relatives , who I imagined to be relaxing on the beach , sippinghomemade sodaand throw back their heads in laughter .
Every time I climb into my auto in some new originative way , dropped my keys because my hands were shaking from the cold , or tally another layer of article of clothing to my daily rig , I thought of Hal Borland ’s quote above : This wintertime may be intense , but it wo n’t stick around forever . finally , the ice , snow and chill will all move back , and the mild temperatures and widespread cat valium of spring will come on and take its place . outflow will give direction to summertime , which will blossom into fall and eventually come back to wintertime . ( We just wo n’t conceive about that distant part of the cycle decently now . )
This positivist thinking might not have warmed my frozen toes or made my car door usable again , but it did offer a mental suspension from the fearful atmospheric condition outside . ( As did the giant pot ofchiliI made Monday night ; my mother always said there was no skillful intellectual nourishment in wintertime than a steaming bowl of soup . ) Lo and behold , the polar vortex eventually gave way to “ normal ” January temperature across the nation — Lexington is enjoy a positively mild 36 - point day as I indite this .
So , as wintry weather go on over the next few month , and you find yourself despairing while you muck up out the chicken coop , just remember : Winter is going to have to eventually give up the trace and springtime will be right on its heels . As for straightaway winter - weather puff and relief , I ’d recommend an extrapair of mittensas you do farm chores , a roaringfirewhen you come in from the cold and as muchsoupas your stomach can hold .
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