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So, as I shuffled my feet along the icy sidewalk while waiting for the bus this morning, it was -14° F. And that's not the point of this post.

Nor is the point of this post the fact that we've received a record-breaking eighty inches of snow this winter (drolly notes Mayor Dave, channeling my father: "It builds character"). Nor is it the two inches of rock-solid, slick ice still coating most of the campus sidewalks and major roadways in town.* Nor is it the persistently nasty wind chills. Nor is it the mountains of snow surrounding our houses and roads, shrinking two-lane streets down to one, piled up so high that I can't even see the bus coming down the street until it pulls up in front of me.

Though I should mention, for all of you out there in internet-land who qualify "cold" as "below twenty" and a "snow day" being necessary after three inches of snow: please, take a moment, pause, and recognize. Thank you.

No, the point of this post is that -- while I was shuffling my feet, waiting for the bus, in -14° weather, a high school student walked by. And his coat was zipped up to his nose, his face was wrapped in a scarf, and he had a hat jammed down over his hair.

A temperature low enough to make native Wisconsin teenagers zip up their coats and wear hats. I honestly, truly did not think that such a thing existed.

* Though I did notice a lot of SUVs on the west side learning the hard way that four-wheel-drive does not, in fact, give you superior braking power. In fact, the increased mass of the vehicle guarantees the opposite. Enjoy the snowbanks, asshole drivers, but do keep more than two feet away from my bumper.

Yes, I admit it... I'm one of those people that live in a place (DC) where most residents do qualify "cold" as "below twenty" and a "snow day" being necessary after three inches of snow. Those same residents look to me to be brave in the face of winter because I'm from Canada but, dude, I do not like cold and I live here for a reason.

:)

65 = cold. I have to get a vest on just to read this web site.

What's a "snow day"?

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