It has been really cold here this week. Gillian and I just look at each other and laugh lately upon hearing the forecast. I can’t explain exactly why it is funny. I guess thinking about how we have been experiencing winter in Northern California for the last 16 or so years, well, it just makes me laugh now as I brace myself for the sub-zero wind chill as I go to work in the morning.

Let me just say that it is a misnomer to say that 18 degrees is a high, even if temperatures for the rest of the day do go above that. Eighteen degrees is a low temperature, very cold. Mind you, it’s not cold enough to freeze your eyelashes together while you’re waiting for the bus (true story from my Minnesota days), but perhaps it is cold enough so that you instinctively look down to make sure that you put your pants on that morning (this really happened to a friend of mine). It’s cold!

The forecast for this week is for unseasonably mild temperatures. While I am still enjoying the varieties of weather in Chicago, I’m relieved that we will be getting some respite from the extreme cold.