Baby, You'll Freeze Out There!!!

"It's up to your knees out there..." Or so goes the song.

But it is cold. One of the coldest winters I can remember in my 28 years in Texas. I love winter. My blood, however, has gotten quite thin from living so far south. The weatherman predicted that tomorrow morning, it will be a whopping 11 degrees. "It ain't fit out for man nor beast", my Dad used to say when the weather was especially bad. I think he would have been right in this case.

Did you know that mercury freezes at minus 38 degrees Celsius? So, if it gets really cold, your old-fashioned mercury thermometer will stop at minus 38 degrees. I know that Dallas is experiencing one of it's coldest winters in years, but I don't think it's going to get that cold.

So when the alarm goes off at 6:30 tomorrow morning and my 11 year-old son runs into our bedroom to wake me up, I'll feel a little shiver run through me as I take a deep breath, hop out of bed and run into the bathroom and turn on the heat lamp. I'll take a little longer than I usually would to brush my teeth and comb my hair before getting dressed, soaking up some of the glorious artificial warmth.

Then, I've got to take the dog out to potty!!! Oh bother! I wonder if The Potty Patch works like it does in the commercial. But at $39.99, I'm not about to take that chance that it doesn't.

The weatherman tells us that a wind chill rating of minus 25 degrees Fahrenheit or lower can cause skin to freeze. I think they call it frostbite. If it is that cold out, make sure all exposed skin is covered – except your eyes, of course. Why? Will your eyes not freeze? A fact that I'll ponder as I take the dog for a walk in the brisk morning air.

Another point to ponder is Global Warming. As I walk the dog in the morning, I would welcome a sunspot or two peeking out from the clouds. Where is Al Gore when you need him?