01/14/03's illustrious band:

Frozen Sweat

Brought to you by Sister-san, who wrote on a recent record-breakingly warm January day:

"Boss-man Nathan just came in and expressed his joy about not needing a down jacket today. He hates to wear another coat over his suit coat, even on frigid days, because then, he says, he becomes a 'sweaty guy, full of frozen sweat.'"

Blech.

But now that more normal winter temperatures have returned the frozen North to its natural state, I think we all know how this guy feels. You get all layered up, then stand around the lobby for five minutes before everyone is ready to go out to lunch, or you go into a warm store to shop. You keep your ultragortex uber-parka on, of course, because you'll be going back outside in just a few moments. The coat does its job and keeps you nice and toasty. And then, when you finally exit the building and that first blast of icy Canadian air hits . . . poof! You're freeze-dried. Yep, I can relate.

Winter does indeed seem to be back, so consider this a Happy Second Snow greeting. We got a dusting of dry, fluffy snow that looks like dryer lint last night. The stuff is lightweight enough that I swept the driveway at Sensational Acres rather than deploy the snowblower at 6:00 a.m. My neighbors' houses are probably just as well sound-insulated as mine is, given our proximity to a major airport, but the blower really would have been overkill. I had the deck, drive and walkways cleared in under 20 minutes, which is about how long it would have taken me to refamiliarize myself with the blower's user's manual anyway, and didn't even develop a frozen sweat problem. I'll save the heavy machinery for a heavy snowfall.