The Wind Howls Like a Hammer

After some brutally high winds and the wind chimes on my neighbors' rear patio deck clanging night and day, the wind outside my house is slowly subsiding and my electricity has stayed on (and hopefully will remain on by the time the gusts diminish).  But as I type this, at ten minutes past midnight, it's way too cold out there - about one degree (Fahrenheit, of course!) now, with the low to be in the negative single digits and the wind chill expected to be in the negative double digits.  This bitterly cold weather - the coldest in more than twenty years - is expected to last most of the week, with temperatures not expected to recover until late next week.  But least what snow is expected where I live is likely to be on the lighter side . . . although I'm wary of a possible wintry mix next weekend.  Too bad about New England . . .

So what keeps me going?  Well, I remember how bad the winter of 1993-94 was . . . severe cold, seventeen snowstorms, and a nighttime blackout on the first full day of spring that prevented my sister from watching the Oscars (this was before the Academy Awards were moved to February to take advantage of sweeps ratings).  I was planning a trip to Chicago for later in the year, going over travel brochures.  When the electricity went out that evening, I continued what I was doing by candlelight while my sister was ranting abut having to miss the Oscars.  It's been said that it's better to light a candle than curse the darkness . . . and I'll be darned if both didn't happen in my house that night! :-D 

This winter hasn't been as bad for northern New Jersey regarding snowstorms - only five so far, with some mixed precipitation here and there, and it's only been extremely cold in the past couple of days.  What gets me through it?  The same thing that got me through the winter of 1993-94 . . . the promise of spring.  Spring did come eventually that year, and then summer.  I went for bicycle rides, I went to see the cherry blossoms in Newark's Branch Brook Park, I took day trips to Pennsylvania, and I made it to Chicago that September.  

Spring will come again.  I just hope we don't get a lot of sleet and freezing rain next Sunday.

By the way, the Oscars are on next Sunday.