It’s 18 degrees right now.
EIGHTEEN.
That’s cold y’all.
The first nine words of this post contain two signs that I have lived in the south FAR. TOO. LONG.
First off, I said “y’all” and it came naturally. And I didn’t go back and change it. “Y’all” is all that would flow from my mouth and fingers.
I can’t believe it. But I guess I should because I’m complaining about eighteen degree weather. Oh! And before I forget. You Canadian readers? We don’t do that whole Celsius thing here. All of my degrees are in Fahrenheit. I know, 18 degrees Celsius? That’s REALLY warm. Ok, so not really. It’s 64.4 degrees Fahrenheit and while that’s not my idea temperature, I’d take it over the eighteen and dropping that we have now.
But because I want my Canadian readers to KNOW how cold I’m talking when I say 18 FREAKIN’ DEGREES, I found a little conversion thing. And my 18 degrees is your -7 degrees.
COLD. PERIOD.
I mean, come on. I grew up in places like Philadelphia. It’s 17 right now, supposed to drop to 10 tonight and the warmest it will be over the next 10 days is 38.
Know where else I lived?
Boston. Not for long, granted, but from September-February. I think I know about cold weather there, though. It’s 11 degrees right now and it’s supposed to drop down to 1 degree tonight. What’s the point? ONE degree? Just call it Zero. It’s so much more dramatic. High for the next 10 days? 36. At least they’ll have a day to thaw out slightly.
Wanna know where else I’ve lived?
Watertown, New York. It’s -4 there right now, supposed to drop to -18 tonight and the high for the next 10 days? TWENTY-FOUR! For the high! That’s not high! That’s LOW.
And speaking of the weather in Roanoke, Virginia, part of the SOUTH, which apparently Mother Nature has forgotten, the high tomorrow, when the SUN IS SHINING?
Twenty.
I know what you’re thinking.
Heather. Seriously girl. Get a freakin’ grip. Twenty is not as low as it seems. It’s going to warm up…eventually. Twenty is okay and the sun will be shining! It will be the day that the Lord has made. Rejoice in it and be glad.
Scary how I can read your mind, isn’t it? I know. Just a gift. Heh.
But you know what? It’s not the twenty that I have a problem with. It’s not. Plain, ordinary, feels like twenty is okay. It’s not IDEAL, but its okay.
The problem is? It’s not going to plain twenty. It’s going to be twenty with a bonus. The bonus of wind gusts which creates what, class?
A WIND CHILL.
Folks, it’s not called a wind chill for nothing, although it’s not really a chill, either. Chilly and cold are two very different things.
So, tomorrow I get a sunny day of twenty with a windCOLD of MINUS FIFTEEN.
MINUS FIFTEEN.
It gets worse.
The local weather man posted this on the website tonight.
FRIDAY: Bitterly cold and windy. High: 20
FRIDAY NIGHT: Clearing. Frigid. Low: 3 (yes, just 3)
SATURDAY: Slightly warmer. High: 29
He actually clarified that the low tomorrow night was going to be THREE. Do you know why?
Because we don’t get in the single digits very often, and hardly ever do we get close to ZERO. It might as well be zero. Can you tell the difference between three degrees and zero degrees?
Again, you Cannuks, remember, I’m not talking Celsius here. Three degrees for you is 34.7 for me. And three degrees for me? That’s -16 degrees for you. Not trying to insult your intelligent, and I know it gets cold in Canada, but you have to understand, THREE DEGREES IS COLD FOR HERE! Shoot, anything below 20 is typically cold for here and last January? It was in the 70s some days. Some of my flowers came up. Of course, that was unusually warm for here as well and not the norm. But I MUCH preferred that. I feel like I’m getting paid back for enjoying the last two January’s really.
And when it gets to be that cold here, guess what they do? The same thing they do when the TALK about snow or ice — they cancel school.
The surrounding counties are all closed or on a two hour delay. I keep watching to see if they do anything with our schools. It’s exam week, but I’m sure if they don’t at least delay it some parent will call and complain that they were forced to send their child out to wait for the bus in cold weather and didn’t have gloves for them, or a hat, because, well, it doesn’t normally get that cold here.
And I really do mean that. I looked. Our average is a high of 45 and a low of 36. At least that what it was in 2008.
And then, this parent will be on the news, because they will have decided to sue the school system after their child got frost bite or hypothermia because they were sent out to wait for the bus with no hat or gloves. It will be all someone else’s fault. I’ll see it on the news and scream at the TV and wonder why parents just can’t buy their children winter items. Even if it’s 35 or 40 I still like to wear gloves.
It’s COLD.
I’m not sure why they would delay school. So what if it’s going to be 9 degrees when we wake up and are standing at the bus stop. Will it really warm up that much that you would be able to tell between 7am when they are supposed to catch the bus or 8a or 9a depending on the delay? How many degrees can our little sun pump out when the wind is battling it?
Of course, maybe the county should cancel school. If the kids don’t freeze to death, they’ll be blown away with that little wind chill of MINUS FIFTEEN. In all honesty, it’s early dismissal tomorrow. If they delay the start of school and then they get out early? They would be in school for less than two hours.
What’s the point?
Hear ye! Hear ye! Oh school board of Roanoke County! I know that you’re struggling on making a decision right now, watching the temperature, the Dopplar radar and the other school systems surrounding us. I know, that because it’s exam week, and the last day of exams, and because it’s only a half day anyway that you REALLY want our kids to go to school tomorrow. I also know that you know there will be a minimum of one hillbilly parent that will get upset that you made his or her child go to school in these temperatures. It’s a struggle. Reschedule and exam…face a lawsuit…reschedule an exam…face a lawsuit.
I know.. it’s tough and I’m so glad that I’m not in your shoes, but if I were? I’d go ahead and cancel school. Letting my children sleep in tomorrow will result in them not getting up until noon which is about the time they would get home anyway. If I have to wake the beasts at normal time, listen to the complaining about how it’s cold, AND deal wtih them when they come home early, interrupting my work day? Yeah, that’s not going to work for me. Go ahead and just cancel it.
What’s funny about all of this is that I don’t ever recall complaining about the winters in any of the three aforementioned cities.
I do remember living in Hawaii. It’s 73 there right now.
Not that I looked it up or anything.
But they still haven’t closed us, so I guess I need to go and find the gloves and hats. Yes, I own them, but because we never use them, I don’t know where they are.
And I don’t want to be that parent.
Until next time…
It is currently 9 degrees in Blacksburg. And it will be close to, if not below zero tomorrow night. I am going to Walmart first thing tomorrow to get a space heater – my heat is having a tough time keeping pace with these frigid temps!