Life imitating art?

subtitle: The Day After Tomorrow

Did you know that it is really, really cold here? Did you know that it is so cold that I had to put towels on the windowsills, to keep out some of the cold air? I have frost inside my outer window? Not just a little, but ice?

Below zero actual temps, wind chill was -19°F last night when I watched the 10:00 news.

Yes, I have been through worse weather. Like the year I was a senior in high school. -70°F Windchill. Some guy walked from the convenience store at the end of the main street, to our house to get a tow truck, rather than calling. He ended up with frostbite on his ears so bad that they turned black. The store wasn't open yet, so he couldn't call, and he didn't want to bug people by knocking on their doors in the pre-dawn hours. Obviously, this was before normal people had cell phones.

So much we take for granted...

Anyway, that year, we missed the last couple of days of school before Christmas break because the temperatures were so dangerous. It was all about trying to stay warm, and worrying about my dad, out in the tow truck trying to help people. It was thinking about those times that prompted me to buy him hand and foot warmers for Christmas two years ago (that and a thermal bowl with a lid, so his soup would stay warm for lunch). Last year, I bought him these really good socks that cold-weather hikers use, plus hand and foot warmers. This year, I don't know yet.

In any case, when I think about all of the sacrifices my dad made for us girls and my mom (and still does), I just want to do things for him that will make his life and work easier. Keep him warm while he is out in terrible weather, say a prayer to keep him safe when he has a fire call, or an accident call. He's been stuck in the tow truck before, a long time ago when the twins were little. He came home covered in snow, ice on his beard and eyebrows, and we all just cried and hugged him, so glad to have him home after so many hours of just hearing him on the two-way radio. His former boss took out the big truck to go get him, and ended up stuck too. They had to winch each other out, and I still don't know just how they did it, but they did. Hours and hours, it took. In a blizzard. My dad was, and is, a superhero.

So, when I think back to the winters of my childhood, this winter seems almost mild so far. Except for it still being autumn, that is. I may have to try to find some of those pictures...