File Photo: Our Driveway, Winter 2011
This has been said before, but I think it bears repeating. People who live in Upstate New York are tough when the winter rolls around. This morning it was negative 4 at our house, and the wind was whipping. We only have a single car garage, and my car was in the garage, and Linda’s was out in a snowdrift. Linda had to get to physical therapy so I went out and got her car out of the drift. It wasn’t fun, but the only things that hurt when I came in were my fingertips.
I got to Panera, and the place was kind of quiet. Still there were a bunch of people who weren’t about to let sub-zero wind chills prevent them from having their coffee in their usual spot and in their usual chairs. Plenty of regulars were there: Dale, Nick, Mary, Vicki, and Al to name a few. Of course, when you first arrive and see people, the first thing you ask is, “how about this cold?” or some such question. But then, rather remarkably, the weather stops being a topic. From where I sat I heard people discussing internships and trips to Cape Cod. I was involved in two short discussions, one about lacrosse and the other about Yellowstone Park. People were smiling and apparently happy despite the record cold. By the way, I checked the temperature in Denali State Park in Alaska today. It was 41 degrees above zero. That’s right above zero! It’s about as cold here as it is anyplace on the habitable parts of the globe. Maybe it’s the sunshine that keeps people smiling regardless of the shiver. It has been sunny lately. When I step outside into the bright sun and into a gust of frigid wind, I imagine that this is what it must be like on a summer day in Antarctica. Look hard enough, and you can almost always find summer.--Greg Ellstrom
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