Watching the winter storm through our living room window on our anniversary/Valentine’s weekend.
Tag: winter
The days are getting longer
Last night upon arriving home after work and running a couple or errands, I noticed that the sky was just a little bit lighter blue than it had been at that same time a few nights ago. With all of the frigid weather and incessant snow storms we’ve been having here, there is something so sweet about anticipating spring. This is the change of seasons that I have miss all these years in California. I know how wonderful Chicago is in the spring and summer, and I can’t wait to skate along the lake shore, ride my bike around town, and meet Gillian for picnics and concerts in Millennium Park. I long for the farmers markets, fresh corn, tomatoes warmed in the summer sun.
Tonight, we’re hunkering down for another storm. We’ve been celebrating our fourth first wedding anniversary all week, and we have a feast planned, which I’ll write about tomorrow with a few photos. Enjoying comfort foods, snuggling up with a romantic movie, getting cozy as the next storm revs up, and dreaming of spring.
All you can do is laugh…
I meant it when I said I was looking forward to the change of seasons. And it is still an adventure in sort of a fun way. When I woke up this morning, I can’t say that I looked forward to going outside and facing the storm. But once I got out there, it was kinda fun, I admit. And everyone else was out there, too. The train was packed as usual, even with the eight inches plus of snow that was hampering our travel.
So, here we are, our first winter in Chicago after sixteen years in California, and it is one of the worst in years. I really don’t mind it yet. It’s beautiful! The blanket of snow slows and quiets everything down. You run in place on the sidewalk because it’s so slippery. Your face freezes a little and you have a hard time enunciating, and everyone just looks silly!
18 Degrees is Not a High
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.
Paradoxologies 