Cold snap

after a gray and slippery january thaw, it's getting cold again. the high on saturday is supposed to be three degrees below zero, with lows of about 15 below. this isn't unusual for minnesota in january, and if the sun is out and there's no wind, it's quite tolerable.

(i maintain--and i urge you to try this--that if you are appropriately dressed and there is no wind, you can go outside when it's below zero, turn your face to the sun, and shut your eyes, and you will not be able to tell if it's winter or summer. i have done this. it's true. all you feel is the sunshine.)

still, the cold can be a bother. you have to drag out the long johns, the flannel-lined jeans, the puffy down jacket, the polarfleece vest, the rabbit-fur cap with earflaps, the Smartwool socks, the Sorel boots. getting dressed becomes quite a production.

so today, as we were walking the dogs in the four-degree morning, i started thinking about the top ten positive things about this kind of weather. doug and i aren't quite as witty as david letterman's entire team of highly paid, no-longer-striking writers, so bear with us.

TOP TEN THINGS TO LOVE ABOUT THE COLD

10. You can take full advantage of your sweater collection. (with apologies to Tom, who invented the term.)

9. Keeps out the riff-raff--joggers!

8. Boscoe doesn't get over-heated on walks.

7. Nobody bats an eye if you show up hours late for work, claiming a dead battery.

6. Hot chocolate becomes a matter of survival.

5. Chance to wear that hibachi underwear.

4. There's nothing quite as invigorating as wool next to the skin.

3. Hat hair is cool.

2. Outdoor dining areas are wide open.

and the number one positive thing about a high of three below zero:

1. frozen dog poop has no stink, and is quite easy to pick up!

(a note on the photo: by doug, taken in downtown st. paul during the december cold snap.)

(a testy PSS: blogger is annoying me. it has arbitrarily changed the color of my blog title from red--which you can read against the snow--to white. i can't figure out how to change it back; when i click on "fonts and colors," it says it's red. and when the page loads, it's red and then switches to white. if anyone has any ideas, let me know. i just didn't want you think the white-on-white idea was mine.)