It’s pretty but I’m not feeling it this year
We haven’t had BIG SNOW yet this year in the SE Great Lake State. Don’t get me wrong. There’s still plenty of time for that. But to date, I have worn my winter BOOTS exactly ONCE and I probably didn’t really need them that day. Mostly I wear a pair of Keen sandals with YakTrax attached. I am not wearing these sandals over bare feet. I wear tights and smartwool socks and my feet have been warm in 10 degree weather.
We are getting temperatures in the teens this week and I continue to be amazed at all the people who walk by my “office” aka the Green Couch without hats. How can y’all stand to be out in 11 degrees with your head and ears uncovered? Nobody cares about what your hair looks like especially during COVID. And this isn’t about the old wives’ tales where going outside in the cold with wet hair makes people sick. That doesn’t make people sick. Viruses make people sick. I love the feeling of having my head and neck enclosed in my smartwool balaclava with my bomber hat on top of that when it gets too cold, like it has this week. I wear my balaclava even when the temp is in the 30s. Because I am a woman and also wear skirts when I walk, I don’t think I freak anyone out.
I don’t think my balaclava is good as a MASK so I keep a MASK in my jacket pocket on the rare chance that I may have to be close to another person on my 0-skunk-30 walks. But I don’t usually because on the 1% chance that I actually see another person, we are easily able to socially distance. Occasionally that means I have to galumph off the sidewalk into the street or schoolyard to avoid someone but that is a rare occurrence at 0-skunk-30.
I don’t really want Big Snow this year. I don’t have to drive anywhere except for curbside pickup so I am cool. I have to worry (because I am a MOM) about my adult child who lives out in a glacial area of the county with crazy driving conditions even in the summer. But as an adult, she and her partner are handling it and guess I should just chill out.
I remember when my parents did that with me, when I drove from college to the yooperland in a frickin’ ice storm and made it safely. Some day I might talk about that.
February 9th, 2021 at 9:11 pm
I don’t like driving in snow, hate it in ice, and worried a lot about Alison doing so–but now she works from home. Ashley lives across the street from where she works, if she ends up physically teaching this year. I think we’ve had (what feels like) an endless winter because we’re forced to spend so much time inside now. I get out when I can–but nothing like I was doing a year ago.