A big long whiny rant about the weather

I am not one to normally moan and complain about the weather. Truly I'm not. But Jesus Mary and Joseph and by all that is holy it was NINE degrees on Monday morning. NINE. With a wind. A strong wind. It never got above 17 degrees all day. With a wind.

Looking out as far as I can in the forecast, I see numbers like these: 10. (The projected low for Tuesday night.) 8. (The projected low for Wednesday night.) 1. Yes, one. One stupid-goddamn-lousy-frickin'-pardon-my-French but I am REALLY-sick-of-this degree.

And I see words like these: "Mainly cloudy and bitterly cold." "Partly cloudy and frigid." "Partly sunny, breezy, and cold."

It's March. Dammit, can you hear me, Mother Nature, it's March. Crocuses, daffodils, baby birds. Where the hell are they? Or baby bunnies? Where the hell are the baby bunnies? Or how about puddles and soft rain instead of gray ice ice ice ice ice?

Winter started here on Dec. 1, when it snowed six inches, and it has been solidly winter ever since. More than three months of complete and utter and unrelenting winter. I walked out at noon on Monday to mail a package, and the wind was so sharp it took my breath away; I felt, briefly, oddly, as though I should be mailing Christmas cards. It felt like late December.

It's March.

Dammit.

Doug and his buddies are going ice fishing this weekend; their 16th annual trip, I think it is. For fifteen years, they have gone in January. This year, they figured, why not go in March? The fish bite better in early spring, and we can sit out on the ice in the 30-degree sunshine and we don't need a fishhouse.

The high on Friday up there is supposed to be eight. With a strong wind.

They are renting a fishhouse.

It is that, or die.

All that said--it's a bleak day that has no fun in it. And despite the cold, Monday did have some fun. In the form of a package sitting on my porch when I got home.

It contained this card.

And these! They are from Alison. She had a plethora of Girl Scout cookies,
and offered a give-away on her blog. And I'm not exactly sure what I did,
but somehow, I won!

And in the incredibly kind and generous world of blogging,
Alison not only sent me cookies--she thanked me--and wrapped them up in a ribbon.

This made me smile.