A COLD ONE

My photo of a view east of our town.



My predawn walk was a brisk one. The moon hung like a sliver of ice over the southeast and the dark sky was cloudless. I didn’t look at the temperature before I left the house and, although I was dressed warm, I was not prepared for the sting of the air on my face. Wow! But, no matter, in a few minutes the bare skin was numb. My breath fogged up my glasses, and my windbreaker took on a rattley sound as I walked through the park. When I got to the campus I could see a great change had happened. The place is normally an anthill of activity even early in the morning. But the students have gone on Thanksgiving break. With it being so cold and still; I got the feeling I was in one of those sci-fi movies where everything had turned to stone or stopped in time and I was the only thing moving. The streets were so quiet that I walked diagonally across an intersection that is famous for texting drivers taking out pedestrians talking on cell phones. The campus-grounds crew had put up marker rods along the sidewalks to give the snow removal workers an idea of where to go when real winter hits any time in the near future. They had also set up the life-size nativity by the fine arts building. The figures seem to be huddled around a heater grate in the ground. When I got home I looked at the thermometer. Fifteen degrees (that's minus nine celsius)! No wonder I could not feel my face! Brrrr!