It's Freaking Cold Outside!

I'm not used to the cold anymore.

That may sound strange to those of you who know me and know I live in Minnesota, land of ten thousand lakes, mosquitoes, and icy winters. The last few years have been mild. We haven't dipped much below freezing and we haven't had much in the way of snow. Even this winter proved to be balmy, with January temperatures in the low 40's and the sun shining more often than not.

Then the cold came. That wonderful arctic chill that settled upon the Midwest, bringing with it bone-chilling winds and temperatures in the negative numbers. In a word, brrrrrr! Even my dog, who is part husky, is not immune to the cold. He usually loves to lay in the snow for hours on end, but this dip in temperatures has him hopping from foot to foot, begging to be let in mere minutes after we have let him outside to do his doggie thing. Poor baby!

I almost skipped church today so I could snuggle longer in my warm bed. I was to teach Sunday School so I decided to dress in layers, make the husband warm up the car and make a mad dash between house to car then car to church building. I swear my breath was freezing and dropping to the ground with tiny tinkling sounds every time I exhaled.

It's freaking cold here, people! I can't even focus on writing right now because my book takes place in late summer, early fall and I can't imagine ever being warm again. Ever. I know March will come and with it will come spring, or at least the promise of spring. But that's not soon enough. If the weather doesn't at least warm up to the 20's, I'm afraid we'll have to move. That will make the hubby happy. In case you didn't catch it, that last sentence was dripping with sarcasm. My husband loves MN. I think it's because he was born here. Me, I relocated after I married him. I'm from Canada, which you would think would make me immune to the sub-zero chills.

Um, no. I moved south (from the Calgary area of Alberta) to get away from the cold. The weather there is hovering just below freezing. And it's sunny. And at any moment a warn Chinook wind could blow down from the mountains, melting the snow and raising temperatures significantly. *sigh* But I live in freezing-my-butt-off Minnesota. And I'm here for the foreseeable future so I guess I better get used to it. And haul that down parka out of storage, because if the forecast is to be believed, MN is going to be the arctic for at least another couple of weeks.