Now this is gorgeous weather!

Not comfortable weather, I'll agree, but absolutely gorgeous. That pic at right is the built-in from my mini-van on the drive in this morning. Frosty! The observant reader will note that the readout is displaying in degrees Celcius. True. this temp only corresponds to about -10 deg Farenheit. Unfortunatley, I don't have a pic of the temp when I hit the highway... -15 deg F! At my home, by contrast, it was a disappointing -8 deg F. It's the winter version of the lake effect - always a few degrees warmer at home because of the proximity of a Great Lake.


But I digress. My point was that this morning is beautiful. The sky shades from a denim blue westward of overhead to a gentle rose at the horizon (sunrise still being a few minutes away). The air is still , and quiet. Since schools are closed, many people are home from work with the kids, and the roads run free and easy (well, techinically not free, since the Illinois tollway authority extracts a buck from me each day to get to work, but again, I digress). Best of all is the snow. It's too cold for salt to do it's snow-melting magic, so the parking lots are covered with a layer of packed snow. And when you walk on it, it squeaks! It's my favorite sound of winter, the squeaky crunch of o'er frozen snow.

But that's not all! Frost builds up on the moustache after only a minute or so outside. Nose hairs also freeze together with the frost from exhales. It's a curious sensation, having one's hairs freezing together - a brief window into a different world. Further indication I'm a freak? Sure, but what the hell? It's the only weather I truly love!