The Coldest Week of Winter

While driving along a familiar route yesterday afternoon,

I noticed a beautiful flowering almond shrub covered in dark pink blossoms.

It looked beautiful, but oddly out of place 

considering that the temperature had dipped overnight to below freezing.

And unlike recent weeks, the temperature didn't warm up to the 50s by afternoon.

With this unwelcome chill,

my musings about an early spring in yesterday's blog 

proved to be less than prophetic.

~

Outside: Cold. Cold. Cold.

Inside: Dry Air.

Result: When we get too close, 

my long hair and the pekes' fur rises in the air

and then snaps, crackles, and pops with static electricity.

And I dare not walk across the carpet and touch anything, lest I get a shock.

~

Although today's weather reporters 

have expanded their prognostications beyond rain, sun, or snow

and cheerily caution us about air quality, pollen counts,

wind chills, heat indexes, and wind gusts,

they don't yet supply us with an index for static electricity.
But they have kindly announced that this week 

will be the coldest one of the winter thus far.

Oh, great. 

And we have weeks to go until Spring.

Yet, I am trying to be more optimistic about things in general,

so I will try not to complain about the cold, 

or if worse comes to worst, ice and snow.
Besides, as I noted yesterday,
Tidewater generally has warmer weather through the winter,
and our 24 degrees this morning is balmy
compared to the below zero temps elsewhere.

photo courtesy of morguefile.com

~

I once knew an elderly woman named Imogene

who personified graciousness and optimism.

One April, after hints of spring were finally beginning to emerge

following a very long and bitterly cold winter, 

a late season snow fell.

I began to grumble to her about my unhappiness over the prospect of more winter. 

She listened for a moment and then leaned in and said, 

"Oh, but the crocuses will look so beautiful in the snow."

And they did look beautiful in the snow.

But let's face it, beautiful or not,

it was still too cold.

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