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I Like Cold!
For anyone who is familiar with Wisconsin,
they'll recall we had record snowfall last winter (104 inches) – and
this year looks to be much the same, with the addition of extreme
cold. Yet, after a week's visit in balmy south Texas, I was anxious
to get home because I missed the colder climate. It seemed
unnatural for the temperature to be in the 70s in January – that
just wasn't right! My first day home I reveled in donning my long
underwear, boots, scarf and gloves and shoveling snow while
breathing in the crisp, fresh air. Even when the wind chill brought
the temperatures well below zero, my girlfriend and I were out
shopping, hoping to catch a deal on post-Christmas clothing. Crazy,
you say? To me it seems no crazier than the Arizonian who can't
wait to get back home and swelter in that 100 degree heat; but, to
each their own. There is a sereneness to the stillness of snow
covered fields that I just couldn't find with swaying palm trees.
So, in the spirit of loyalty to my home state, I offer this poem.
Minus Ten Degrees of
Bliss
We
Wisconsinites like our winters strong.
None of
this wimpy slush or insipid sleet,
but
give us biting, bone-cracking, sub-zero cold
and a
clear sky with the sun sharp;
give us
mounds, piles, extravagance of snow
to
conquer, plow, swoosh and mush through --
not
this "light dusting," a fingerflick of white,
hardly
worth the trouble.
Make
our toes and fingers ache with chill
that we
might test out
the
latest thermo-wool-fleece everything
and
debate the merits of Sorels versus Bean's;
Let us
decorate the pristine fields
with
blaze orange and degrees of camouflage
as we
leave our solid boot prints of the hunt,
or hear
the gleeful whine of engines
of
blowers and throwers and mobiles.
We say,
bring on the snow,
save us
from mundane asphalt
and set
us loose in the frigid woods,
the
iced lakes and the random treks
of the
winter wilds.
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