Freezing Over

The view this morning was sharp and bright where you could see it.  This is usually the case on the coldest of mornings.  I had meant to capture the winter majesty from an attic window but caught a different kind of winter majesty instead.  Today started out at 16 degrees below zero, Fahrenheit.  (That's -26.6 C if you're reading this from outside the USA)  Most of the world in my immediate vicinity was holed up in their houses, taking an extra long weekend.

Monday's forecast was all that people were talking about this weekend.  With wind chill predicted to be 50 degrees below zero (-45.5 C) there were dire warnings of the impending danger and sage advice for coping.  Children and pets should be kept indoors at all costs.  Don't travel unless you have to, and don't even think about doing so without food and water and extra blankets in the car.  Keep your ears, nose, and fingers covered; frostbite only takes minutes to set in.  Sunday evening was spent watching the list of emergency closures grow.  Schools, businesses, and public buildings of all kinds closed one after another as the threat loomed.  It seemed as if the normal flow of life were freezing over steadily from the edges inward until the whole county was a solid block of ice.  Monday was being cancelled.

Now, people around here don't panic about winter weather.  At this stage in the season, reports of snow or cold on the way are expected.  They might prompt conversation, but they rarely result in any change to business as usual.  People reminisce about the big snowstorms of the past or talk about waiting for the school bus in below zero weather as a kid.  In general, schools might announce a closing in the morning if a blizzard was making it difficult for the buses to run, but closing because it's cold is a luxury allowed only to private schools.  It's practically unheard of for a school to close in anticipation of cold.  Other types of entities almost never close for weather.

So, as institutions fell, one by one, concern grew.  My mom was being typically stubborn and reassuring me that they would be fine in their under-insulated building even if they had to use the oven to supplement the heat.  I feared I might need to run out and pick her up in the middle of the day.  With our library still among the handful of institutions planning to open, I had to decide whether I could safely come to work.  I don't live as far away as some, but my car is not a fan of the cold, and I wasn't sure it would start in the frigid conditions we expected. (It wouldn't have.  It barely started when I tried it in the warmest part of the day.)  Other coworkers needed to travel farther.  Some had less reliable vehicles.  A breakdown in bitter cold weather could be deadly.  All these concerns weighed against the knowledge that our visitors, should we open, would be few.  My job, specifically, would be practically nothing as the announcement that deliveries were cancelled came fairly early Sunday night.  So, there was some debate about the wisdom of going to work in the weather crisis, with my husband trying to forbid me and knowing that wouldn't work.  Still, just how much do you risk out of a sense of duty to your job?  And who would I be serving by taking that risk?

Thankfully, it was decided just about the time I was calling my manager to say I wouldn't be coming in Monday.  The library would close along with the rest of the Midwest.  The process may be slow, but good sense ultimately ruled.  There's no prize given out for being the toughest library in the area.  For all the joking that Midwesterners may do about the warmer states shutting down at a hint of winter, we know what winter can do.  We've lived it.  In a place where ice fishing and snowmobiling are eagerly anticipated and people might wear shorts or bicycle in the snow, when people say it's dangerously cold, you listen.  Tomorrow is expected to be warmer, and we'll be up early starting our cars in 4 degree weather instead. (-15.5 C)  But sometimes, you just have to do the wise thing and hibernate while Winter has it's day.

I had a similar realization during a camping trip I wrote about here.