Shades of gray on a winter’s day
1. I like ice cooling my wine and salt coating my margarita glass. Now ice and salt are coating my driveway and I hate them both.
2. The sky is almost always gray, although I saw the sun briefly yesterday. It was unfamiliar and hurt my eyes.
3. My dog is adjusting to the sameness of the winter landscape. She may like bland. She may also be colorblind.
4. I have the luxury of noticing how blah the days are.
5. The rare warm day is like the good-looking guy who promises to call. You know he won’t, but you fall for it every time.
6. I’ve learned to walk like a duck: toes out, legs slightly bent. It’s not a walk I ever wanted to learn.
7. In Maine they say there is no bad weather, just bad apparel choices. I don’t live in Maine.
8. All my clothes seem to all be gray or black.
9. I used to spell gray with an “e” until I realized I’m not British.
10. I understand the concept of climate change. I know it’s the warmest winter ever in Moscow, for example, and that Australia experienced record-breaking high temperatures during their winter last year. I know the icecaps are melting and polar bears are starving. I realize in the near term the changes will result in unpredictable weather, given to temperature fluctuations and intense storms, rather than an immediately foreshortened winter. Information isn’t always power. I am still powerless to cancel winter.