Have you ever heard the scream on the old Who song Won't Get Fooled Again? Well, that was the sound of my internal scream at 5:30 on Monday morning when I trudged out into the snow and wind to walk the dogs in well below zero weather. It was not a surprise, but it hit hard nevertheless. The wind had howled a January howl all night long, rattling the lid on the barbecue and whistling around the corners of the house. The wind had died down by morning but it was still nostril freezing cold. And I was off to a ski race.
I climbed up the hill to the bottom of the race hill dressed in a long underwear shirt, a Duofold zip turtle extreme cold shirt, fleece vest, fleece under jacket and shell. My hat was in my pocket. I don't like hats. It was grey and cold; cold and grey. The snow squeaked under my shearling boots (that are not as warm as they look). I was headed for the timing shack. The as yet unheated timing shack. There is heat, but it has to float up, and it was not floating fast. Oh, well. My thermos coffee was hot, and the company was good. I got to learn how to work the computer that keeps track of times and racers, and how to pace the race,although someone else did that. We had a view of the race that alternated between great and almost totally obscured depending on the sun and cloud cover. We took turns wiping the window which, when we arrived, was frozen and required scraping, but as the heat floated up required Bounty drying and a squeegee.

First runs over. Lunch and break time. The sun was out, the sky blue blue. Still cold. Second run began, and the heat had, most assuredly, floated up. The sun was shining into the timing shack, and we were wearing sun glasses and shielding our eyes. I was down to vest and the two shirts. Then down to the shirts, my hair and neck drenched with sweat. Encased in our little heat bubble it was hard to believe it was somewhere around 0 outside. We opened the door and windows to cool the small room down. It even felt good to go out and cool off, sort of like jumping in a cool lake from a sauna.
The next morning my husband asked if it was cold when I got in from walking the dogs. I told him no, it was quite nice out. He went out to start his car and returned to report that it was 2 degrees. Everything really is relative!!

The week progressed to warm breezes--well, really, it rained. All our snow was gone, then yesterday it began to snow again. The snow was predicted to start at 4 pm, but was late; around 9 or so it was finally snowing steadily. I woke up this morning to several inches of snow on the ground and, once again, rain. Real rain, not sleet or something in between, real rain. Heavy rain. The trees soon glazed over. The snow crusted, the bird feeders outside the window were encased in ice, as was the once rattling barbecue. Wind switch returned the rain to snow. Yet again walking the dogs: We broke through the snow's ice crust, and listened to the trees crackle. The sun broke through, glistening sliver across our ice world.
Love winter, love it!!