For the past couple of weeks, it has been really cold. It seems that no matter where you live, it’s been a lot colder than you’d like or expect for this time of year. Traditionally, this arctic blast waits until the first half of February.
I could say that since I come from hardy upstate New York stock that temperatures in the single digits don’t bother me that much. After all, I’ve experienced much colder temps. Take the winter of 1981, when the mercury dipped so low in Syracuse that my toilet froze — twice! Turns out that the waste pipe from my second floor flat ran along an uninsulated exterior wall. To correct the problem, my landlord hung an old army blanket over the opening of the entry way to my back stairs. An unconventional approach for sure, and a little odd-looking, but it did the trick.
The extreme cold also caused havoc on my poor 1973 Plymouth Duster. Many mornings in order to get it started, I’d have to pop the hood, unscrew the wing nut from the air filter and drop a screw driver down to hold the carburetor open. A few pumps of the gas pedal and turn of the key resulted in flames shooting from the carburetor as the engine turned over. Then all I had to do was get out of the car, remove the screw driver, reassemble the air filter and drop the hood. Once the car was running and the engine warming up, I would grab my little red shovel from my trunk and dig my car out of the pile of snow the plow pushed against it the night before. Usually by the time I actually put the car in gear, it was warm inside but my toes and fingers were frozen. Ah! Those were the days!
These days, the cold doesn’t affect me so much. I am blessed with a well insulated home and sufficient clothing to ward off chills. My toilets stay blissfully thawed and my car, toasty in the garage, starts with the mere turn of a key. For me, the cold is just a topic of conversation; a commonality to be shared with others transcending all religious, political or racial views. The simple fact is that when it is cold, it is cold and we all have to deal with it.
The news has been full of clips of total strangers reaching out to help someone in need, with jumps to get cars started, pushing cars out of snow banks, shoveling off walks and generally being nice to each other. It may be cold outside, but there is ample proof that there are warm hearts beating beneath the layers of warm clothing.