Cold Snap Hysteria
It's currently -6 degrees outside my window, having dropped almost 30 degrees since last night. I can't complain though -- I'm snug as a bug, and obviously very lucky in the grand scheme. But I will complain later when I'm making the trek to my car with the sound of ridiculously dry snow crunching under my footsteps.
I don't know what the correlation is between getting older and worrying about the weather. When I was a kid, my brother and I never stayed inside due to the weather, unless there was a tornado in our backyard. And sometimes not even then. Mom just shooed us out, and we gladly went, oblivious of the elements. Do we get softer with age, or have we become an over-protective culture of coddling caregivers in general? Probably a bit of both.
I snapped out of my weather-worry last night when I considered stopping at the store for bread and milk with the other crazies. I realized how ridiculous that was, went straight home, bundled Steven up until he looked like the kid brother from Christmas Story, and sent him outside to shovel the front porch with a dust pan. And he loved every minute of it.
I will keep him in tonight, though, since we're looking at a low of -9. But I still refuse to make a special trip for milk and bread.
