Nobody wants to go outside

Last night I woke in the early morning hours and considered getting up to put another log on the fire in the woodstove. Ultimately, I decided not to leave my warm bed. The fire will last till morning, I reasoned. I was wrong.

As I write this (mostly for those Yellow Springers in the diaspora), the AccuWeather thermometer in the sidebar is reading 18 degs. Fahrenheit. I went to the Chamber meeting at the Bryan Center at 9:00 this morning and the turnout was pretty good, all things considered. But most of the usual suspects were not there. I came home to find messages on my telephone and computer that an afternoon meeting had been canceled.

"I'll contact you after the holidays," the caller said.

In fact, every one of my upcoming meetings has been put off until "after the holidays." Since the holidays start in about two weeks, I suppose I should not be surprised. But I suspect the windchill factor (-6F) has something to do with it.

If you do have to go out, my advice is to dress in layers. In Ohio, which is bordered by Canada on the north and Kentucky on the south, the temperature can change drastically in just a couple hours. Yesterday, we dropped from 50 to 2o degs. over the course of an afternoon. If you don't like the weather, wait a couple hours.