One Below: A Frigid Setting for Mystery

Chicago is unusually cold tonight; we're expecting a low of -4 overnight, and it was not much above zero all day. The tales of Jack London kept floating through my mind, telling me I was a wimp to feel cold; after all, in his classic "To Build A Fire" the temperature was 75 degrees below zero.

In any case, I was thinking what an interesting setting this weather would make for a mystery. Who would go out to commit a crime on a night like this? What would make someone venture into that impossible cold? Saving another person? Murdering him?

The ice photo, once again, is compliments of my poorly insulated house. :) This is what nature painted on my frigid front porch window.

Fighting Autumn Prejudice

Here's a mystery for you: why are so many people unhappy with cool weather?

I have no tolerance for the heat. It makes me cranky, sweaty, lethargic--it even gives me headaches. I am less myself in the summer; I am dormant, waiting for fall.

As far as I'm concerned, today was the first nice day in months: cold, crisp, beautiful layers of gray and white clouds as lovely as a Van Gogh. 50 degrees and breezy: sweatshirt and football weather. Comfort food weather. Snuggling weather. What's not to like?

And yet every weather person is bemoaning the loss of the heat, the loss of summer, as if some precious gift had been taken. They face the camera with sad smiles and say, "It was nice while it lasted." Are they CRAZY? This is the first day I was able to teach my class without that horrible droplet of sweat that runs down my spine during every lecture. I had energy! I was vibrant! I have come out of hibernation. A teacher from across the hall came over and asked what had gotten into me today.

"I just like my subject matter," I said truthfully. But it was probably fall, too, and the wonderful cold that made me so energetic.

Tonight I went to an evening graduate class and all of my classmates were frowning and saying things like "It was eighty on Sunday! What happened to the heat?" They all grumbled together, bonding over their love of summer.

Guess what, I wanted to tell them--it's October! It's supposed to be cold! Tis the season!

Why, oh why, do people dislike this wonderful, crisp, refreshing, invigorating weather?

That's a real mystery to me.