Friday, January 4, 2013

The Heavenly Warmth of Twenty Degrees

Twenty degrees never felt as warm as it did this afternoon. It was 2:15 and I went outside; it was twenty degrees, but the sun was shining brightly and it actually felt warm. It was a much different sensation than at 7:30 this morning when it was minus 22 degrees!

It's just the latest in a stretch of extremely cold mornings, with no end in sight.

Thursday morning was minus 18; Wednesday was minus 19; and Tuesday was minus 7. Tuesday's high temp was the highest in the last four days at 26; the past three days the high has been 24.

And all of these mornings have been days when I worked overnight at the hotel, meaning I'm driving home when it's the absolute coldest, about 7:15 a.m.

I start my car early and go back inside to let it warm up, and going the few steps from the hotel to the car and from the car to the house isn't that bad, as long as I'm bundled up. But Wednesday was trash day, and in the three or four minutes it took me to roll the trash can to the curb, my face got so cold, I couldn't believe it happened that quickly. I was wearing gloves and a coat, of course, but my face was exposed.

We had to laugh last night when we watched the 10:00 news. The weather guy predicted Taos would have a low of minus 4 and it was already minus 12!

Someday Spring will come. Heck, someday it will get above freezing.

In the meantime, I'll go outside in the afternoon when the sun is shining and revel in the warmth of twenty degrees.