I am unhappy to report that we are in the middle of a very difficult period of weather where I live.
I am sadly living in the northern sector of the country, where the weather is routinely dark and really cold all winter.
At the moment, we’re in the midst of a dramatic temperature drop and several blustery blizzards blowing through town. I can tell you, I’m less than excited about the outdoor air temperature and precipitation. It’s enough to drive me into a deep depression until the climate reverts back to a warm and balmy condition. But, as much as I hate the winter season now, I definitely remember a time when I could actually enjoy the climate change that came with the cold season. Back when I was a kid, I thought that winter was awesome. We regularly had snow days away from school. We got to sled down the neighborhood hill on a regular basis. And when there were horrible lizards, we got to have neighborhood sleepovers in front of the fireplace. We all realized a long time ago that the forced air furnaces we relied on we’re not extremely sturdy. We often had heating system breakdowns in the middle of extreme temperature events. As such, we started banding together and combining our heat in front of the traditional wood burning fireplace in my family’s home. All of the kids would sleep in slumber bags in front of the roaring fire and between all the giggles and ghost stories, we never had a second thought about a broken furnace. Blizzards aren’t nearly as fun these days.