Here we go again. I feel like a five-year-old, trapped in her room and having a never-ending tea party with her stuffed animals. It’s not a COVID shutdown; it’s an unusually cold winter.

 

Not that I’m complaining! Hey, it’s 5 F outside right now, a 150% temperature rise since the time I got up! At that time, outdoors it was 2 F. Indoors it was 58, where I’d set the thermostat before going to bed last night. Hearing the furnace start up was better than an alarm clock.

How can you tell when it’s really, really cold? When you wear not one but two insulated shirts to bed.

 

I’ll bet just about everyone reading this blog is experiencing extreme winter weather right now so I can’t really be a crybaby- –

 

No? Then you’re doing a great imitation of one.

 

Thanks, Lily. Life as an inner fourteen-year-old must be pretty comfy right now. What’s it like in there, anyway?

 

Turbulent, like always.

 

Huh. Even when I’m sleeping?

 

Unless you’ve taken night-time cold medicine, yes.

 

I confess I’ve fantasized about putting myself in suspended animation until spring arrives.

 

Like fruit in Jell-O?

 

I hope not, 9, but your imagery makes me think of the dish Mom used to make for Christmas dinner every year. It was raspberry Jell-O with (frozen and thawed) raspberries and maybe some grated orange peel, molded in layers with a cream cheese and walnut layer in between. Uncle Denny loved that stuff.

 

I do, too!

 

New inspiration: let’s talk about the things we like about sub-freezing temperatures. Here’s one: freezing at this time of year is good for the some varieties of fruit trees. And, uhm. . .

 

If the chest freezer stops working, you can just put all the frozen stuff outside!

Good one, 9. I confess, I’ve been using the past two really cold days as an excuse to sleep later. When it’s this cold outside staying in bed for 8 full hours is quite pleasant.

 

It’s the perfect time to drink cocoa.

 

I agree. Anything to add, Lily?

 

In addition to being very cold it’s very dry, so my hair is staying curled really well.

 

To be fourteen (at least, in 1974-75) is definitely to suffer for beauty. I doubt I’m the only one who used to set waist-length hair with Dippity-Do and sponge curlers every other night, and sleep on all of that.

 

The thing about extreme weather is, it helps if you’re prepared to pivot. Today was my usual day for strength training and swimming at the Y. Because it’s smart to stay off the roads right now, I instead did an hour of online core yoga and started a new online class, Belly Dancing Goddess Workout at Daily OM.

 

Oh, what fun! I improvised a costume by tying a big scarf around my hips over my yoga clothes, and grinned through 20 minutes of fast-paced instruction from the young British instructor. The sound of her coin belt was mesmerizing, I plan to get one of my own to add jingle to my moves. The 10-lesson class breaks down different steps and assembles them into a routine by the end of the series.

 

Please don’t do it at the grocery store.

 

I don’t know, Lily, if the mood strikes. . .

 

That reminds me of a recent Facebook post from a singing friend of mine. She’s concerned that opportunities to hear live choral music, not the concert type but people just hanging out singing the same song, is falling out of our culture. My thinking is, this could be the next “thing.” The key is firing up with a song lots of people know in a public place- –

 

I’m sorry I even mentioned the grocery store.

 

And it’s really the perfect time of year, with holiday songs in the air! So let’s give it a try. Start up a well-known song and invite the folks you encounter with a friendly nod to join you. If there’s familiar music playing over the PA, easier still! Start singing and- -no, don’t look into your shopping cart like you don’t mean it- -commit! The worst thing that could happen is you end up with the entire dairy section to yourself.

 

Life is perfectly capable of handing us bad weather, literal or metaphoric. We can’t avoid it, so grab it by the horns and turn it around!

 

Sing! Dance! Be Merry!!

 

Happy Holidays from Susan, Lily and 9.