-16 Degrees Fahrenheit

When I woke yesterday morning, the temperature outside my house stood at -16 degrees Fahrenheit.

Put in perspective, that’s 96 degrees colder than the beach weather I experienced at Grand Cayman only two weeks ago.

If you step outside during such sub-zero temperatures, you will find the world dramatically altered.  Packed snow under your feet squeaks and squeals with each step you take.  The air feels as though it’s burning against your face.  Every breath you take is marked by a white cloud.  Sounds become sharper, quicker.  The trees, and all things mechanical, become unreasonably stiff.

Yesterday morning, even inside my house, I could “feel” the cold trying to grasp at me as I neared windows or stood at my glass door looking out.  My 20 pounds of cat, feeling the same thing, avoided nearing the door.  “Well, buddy,” I said to him when we met in the kitchen, “we might as well spend a bit of quality time together on the sofa.”

Here is another thing: sub-zero temperatures have a kind of weight to them.

As I sat on my sofa with the cat, that weight pressed down on my house.  My house responded to this weight by regularly cracking its knuckles.

This morning, the temperature is -6 degrees Fahrenheit.  Ten degrees makes a lot of difference.  The weight has been eased from my house.  The cold is not grasping at me.  I even managed to throw my cat out onto my deck for 92 seconds.

Not exactly a spring thaw, but I will happily take what I can get.  

—Mitchell Hegman