Showing posts with label Cold. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cold. Show all posts

Monday, October 29, 2012

A Perfectly Chilling Morning


When I stepped outside today, long before the dawn, there was a chill in the air, sharp against the ears, that carried a certain tang to the tip of the tongue. My dog's ears tracked leaves blowing in the street like radar dishes, panning this way and that.

The sky was a river, clouds blowing across the morning moon as they rode atop the currents of the heavens. Orion stood high and proud, further over my left shoulder than he does during the warmer months. His belt shone through the swirling mists, a stoic line demarcating autumn's grip upon the world.

I looked across the street, where tiny ghosts hung from the trees like so many legless horse-thieves dangling from the gallows. They danced in the chill wind. Beside them, skeletons clawed their way out of earthen graves, their animation suspended as if the cold had taken hold of their old bones, and locked them into permanent suffering, halfway buried, halfway free.

I turned to the house next to me, and smiled at the web of the giant spider that had enveloped it, wondering how anyone could get through such a thing without an enchanted elvish blade to hack free of the fibrous netting. Then I looked at my dog, shook my head at her reluctance, and brought her back inside the house.

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Just a little bit of free writing today. Happy Monday, everyone!

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

I'm an Idiot

Leave it to me to sing the praises of cold weather one day and end up sick with a thick old head cold the next.

I feel like my head is full of cotton candy that's sat rotting in the mud for days after the carnival closed and all the freaky carnies have long since gone bumping down the road in their garish wagons. I feel like my nose is stuffed with that quick dry spray foam that they use to make fake rocks on stage in the theater. I feel like I can't come up with one more silly simile without my skull crashing down against the hard, uncaring surface of my desk.

Snore. Sorry guys, I've got nothing for you today, but I still love you all (no energy for exclamation points though).

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Winter Weather

I'm certainly not going to write about football again, not after last night's fantasy loss and Vikings loss, I just can't do it. Plus it would probably put you all to ... zzzzzz

So instead I'm going to talk about Winter Weather (yes that deserves capitalization, but probably not capitolization). I was born in Seattle, and while it rains a lot it never really gets cold or snows unless you go up into the mountains. But, when I was 11, I moved to White Bear Lake Minnesota, and you can believe it gets very cold AND snows there, all the time (there is a reason it's not called Brown Bear Lake). Now I live in Georgia (don't ask me why), and I almost never get to enjoy cold weather.

This morning I took our dog outside to pee at 5:15. Yes, 5:15. It's just not right, I know, don't get me started. Anyway either a pipe had burst or a neighbor across the street had left their hose on, because our street was full of ice all the way down to the sewer grate. I suppose I could have gotten irritated by this, but instead I chose to relish all the things I love about cold weather:
  • I love the way your breath steams up the instant it leaves your mouth and you can play choo-choo train, even as a fully responsible, if slightly insane adult.
  • I love the way my shoes crunch against the frosted ground and the way that sound echoes in the still morning.
  • I love the way my nostrils freeze together when I breathe through my nose and despite the minor pain it makes the air feel fresh and clean and pure.
  • I love that every snowflake is utterly unique, just like the soul of every person, and when you catch one on your tongue it melts into warm comfort just like holding the hand of someone you love.
  • I love how when the winds whips uninhibited across a frozen lake it can sound like spirits wailing at the living.
  • I love how Nesta (our puppy) doesn't take 15 minutes to handle her business when she is freezing her @$$ off!
  • I love how all these southern drivers are so terrified of non-existent but highly touted black ice that they all get into the right lane, cringing in fear as I pass them in my front wheel drive Honda Civic.
  • I love how a fresh snowfall can make even the most dilapidated urban ghetto look full of innocence, peace and purity, even if only for a moment.
  • I love rockin jeans and a hoody, and how they camouflage my ample middle.
  • I love all the activities that only snow and ice can provide: Skiing, Ice-Skating, Snow-Boarding, Hockey, Sledding, Snow Ball Fights, Broom-Ball, Snow-Men, Snow-Angels, Instant Slurpies ....
  • But most of all ... I love the Silence.


Am I a sentimental fool? Sure, probably, but I'm not the least bit ashamed of who I am. Have a great Tuesday readers!