Why Yes, It Is Cold Enough For Me

The day started out warm enough. (For Minnesota. In December. These are important distinctions.)

True, a blanket of gray clouds hid the cerulean blue sky, for the most part, and the sun played coy, only peaking through now and then to flirt. “What, you like what you see? You want to see me again? Oh, sorry. I have to go now.” But the temperature hovered around 32, the freezing mark. That’s not a bad thing for December 13 in these parts.

Then the wind came, howling and screeching. Straight from the Arctic, said the meteorologists. By lunchtime, it had blown our cozy blanket of clouds halfway to Ohio. It’s a cruel wind with a vicious sting, liable to scrape the skin right off your skeleton if you aren’t wearing enough layers. The empty garbage cans on our street were strewn about like giant bowling pins.

And the temperature? It could probably file a torture complaint with the U.N. It was kicked viciously right in the mercury. Our high tomorrow is 10, under mostly sunny skies.

Yikes.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. If you consider "frostbite blue" to be the official color of good cheer.