Cold, growing old, not so bold...

"Today, we call off school when we get 2 - 6 inches of snow in the metro. We call off school for two days when a "polar vortex" drops in. When I was a lad, we did neither. To earn a snow day, snow would have to be measured in the feet instead of the inches. And a "cold day"? Never happened."

Here we are. Ground zero for the latest assault by Mother Nature. This thing called a "polar vortex" or something. As a kid, we would just call this weather "bone chilling" cold. In the Navy, we called it "Brass Monkey" cold (if you don't know what this means, please don't ask). Today, we have meteorologist terms like "polar vortex". ALGORE still calls type of cold, "climate change". All I know is this - the smart ones have gotten the heck out of Dodge, long before this one hit.

Today, we call off school when we get 2 - 6 inches of snow in the metro. We call off school for two days when a "polar vortex" drops in. When I was a lad, we did neither. To earn a snow day, snow would have to be measured in the feet instead of the inches. And a "cold day"? Never happened.

Since kids are off of school for three days straight this week, what do you think they will be doing? TV, video games, social media, playing games. Homework? Some districts have programs when a child is not in school, there are home assignments to complete. Kind of like being a work from home parent. I dare say the districts who have such programs are in the minority instead of majority. Another one of those game changing improvements to education which the cabal of teacher unions and government fight not to implement. 

A woman I worked with many years ago, transferred to Minneapolis from Sunnyvale, California. About halfway through her first winter, she came into my office and sat down. She had a disgusted look on her face. I guess all the excitement about coming to the Twin Cities had worn off. She said, "In Minnesota, you only grow three things. Older, colder and fatter." And then she got up and left. I guess some venting helped her.

But - as cold as it will get tonight and tomorrow night, the end is near. In a bit over two weeks, early spring will start. Yes, I believe there to be eight seasons in Minnesota instead of four. Early spring starts on February 15th and goes until March 31st. On April 1st, late spring starts and goes until May 14th. On May 15th early summer starts. You get the picture. Instead of 90 days long, the seasons are 45 days long.  

There is however, one more bit of good news about this "historic" cold snap. It might just prove too cold for some of the Emerald Ash Borer larvae to survive. Shame. It might also reduce the amount of blood suckers we have next summer. Their larvae might also take a hit. Again, shame. 

What am I going to do to survive this latest polar vortex? Not much. Make an all day fire. Read. Write. Organize stuff. By Friday it will be close to 30, and I will be outside once again, doing stuff and going places. Plus we have grandparent duty that day. It's all good. Time to cocoon. Stay warm out there folks.