Brrrrrr

This morning I made the mistake of walking Nathan to the bus stop without checking the temperature first.

Bundled in our heavy winter coats, gloves, and Nathan with his double hoods and me in my fancy ear-warmer and scarf combo we made it the quarter mile to the bus stop just fine. But once Nathan got on that nice heated bus and I turned around to head home I realized I was in trouble.

The wind started blowing in my face and I could feel my glasses starting to freeze to the bridge of my nose. I had my eyes half-closed anyway against the wind. So I took my glasses off and carried them as I stumbled blindly in my tennis shoes through the drifted snow that apparently no one can shovel off the sidewalks (not that the sidewalks along our house are exactly free of snow...).

Then I realized that the fuzzy fleece pants that I was wearing, while ultra cozy for snuggling on the couch, are no match for a bitter winter wind. In fact, I began to wonder if I really was wearing any pants at all with the way I could feel the wind freezing my knees. (Remember, I took my glasses off so I couldn't see down there, especially not with a big marshmallow-coated pregnant belly in the way.)

I felt like Pa in Little House on the Prairie when he walks home through a blizzard for Christmas and falls in their old dugout house where he waits out the storm. I kept hoping the ground would open up and swallow me into its warmth. Except I didn't have any oyster crackers and Christmas candy in my pockets to survive on while I waited out the winter, so that might have posed a problem... I probably wouldn't live very long on the plastic grocery bag I keep handy for picking up Sparkles' duties.

Oh yeah, did I mention I was dragging Sparkles? She didn't get to stop and sniff all her favorite spots because we were going to make it home if it killed us. I kept praying she wouldn't get tangled around a signpost like she usually does--I probably would've dropped the leash and left her to fend for herself in the cold (...stupid dog, serves her right if she can't figure out which side of a post to walk on...). And then I would've gone back and died of hypothermia trying to untangle her because I felt bad (...she's just a dumb dog, anyway...).

So we finally tumbled into our blessedly warm, wind-free house where I checked the weather on ksl.com as soon as I thawed out enough to realize my cheeks weren't really frostbitten. 20 degrees with winds at 18 mile per hour. Okay it wasn't that cold, we had weeks in Omaha where the high was 12 degrees and the wind blew right through you coat and all, but it was cold enough this morning that I should have known better and worn warmer pants...or just taken him to school in the heated car.