So, Winter Got Here

So winter is in full force.  Normally I really like snow, and I enjoy having 4 full seasons every year.  Well...3.5 full seasons since Michigan does a crap job at keeping Spring feeling like Spring for very long.  It's usually cold as hell, then a couple of weeks of nice spring weather, then 80 degrees.  But still, that's not so bad.  The thing is, I like winter when it's all clean and pretty and picturesque like my photographic friend over here on the left.  I like when the world feels muffled and quiet because there's a blanket of snow on the ground and you can curl up on the sofa with a mug of tea for the evening.  I do not like it very much when it's like my annoying picture friend over here on the right.  That winter can just go ahead and suck it.

This week wasn't winter like in either picture.  It was the sort of winter you can't capture in a photograph, because there's no real way to convey the painful, biting cold that we've been experiencing.  It's the kind of cold that rips through every layer of clothing you can put on, and when you breathe in your lungs immediately reject the knives of icy air you are trying to force into them, causing you to erupt in a fit of coughing.  There have been times when I've wondered if the clouds of breath were going to freeze each time I exhaled so that I'd find myself walking through tiny shards of ice each time I took a step forward.

I'm starting to realize that our very mild winter last year might have spoiled me.  Now all I want to do is find a way to get warm, and never leave the house again.  I'm going to start advocating for human hibernation.