Tuesday, January 28, 2014

"Ice is Just as Great, and Would Suffice"


Frost seemed to predict the climate change debate when he wrote "Fire and Ice."  Certainly this winter is making the ice theory seem plausible, except that those with an imagination (and a memory) will recall that the summer temperatures were just as extreme in the other direction, and are likely to be again, accompanied by storms of record intensity. This is the new age of weather.

I just sat holed up for two "snow days" which were really "negative temperatures days."  I got to read books and write them, and I was lucky enough to be able to do it in a heated house. I found myself wondering how people (and animals) survive in this brutal weather.

But here are the things that I am most grateful for, after this last weekend in Chicago:

--flannel sheets
--a warm body next to me in bed (my husband)
--goosedown comforters
--safe space heaters
--our working furnace
--emergency workers who help people trapped in the cold
--tea and hot chocolate
--Carmex and Chapstick
--pets who found cozy corners to keep them warm (in the case of our tiny female cat, that place is right in front of the bathroom heat vent--warmest room in the house!)

Keep warm, everyone. This too shall pass.