Too Cold or Not Too Cold

December 18, 2007

I learned something yesterday: Just because it's too cold to go outside doesn't mean you can't go outside.

The day before, it was snowy, slushy, grey and cold. Besides, it was Sunday and I had laid in supplies the day before. I looked out the window and decided I just would stay in all day. This meant that I had to make a decision around 3 P.M., because I had been looking forward to a presentation of Christmas carols at the R.C. Church of Sts. Peter and Paul just a few blocks away. An old fashioned carol-sing, with only the beautiful old ones about angels and shepherds and the baby in the manger, held great appeal for me this year of change in my life. I hoped I would hear "Bring a Torch, Jeannette, Isabella" and "Lullaby of the Christ Child" along with the merry "Deck the Halls" and "Joy to the World."

But I thought about it Sunday afternoon and realized I wasn't up for it. I would literally be travelling out of my comfort zone -- my warm apartment, my funky clothes -- and into what I wasn't entirely sure. I elected to stay in and watch my new television instead.

Yesterday the sky had cleared and the temperature was 33° at least. I saw a young woman walking past my building with neither hat, gloves nor scarf, and she didn't look to be cold. "How can she not be cold," I thought -- and maybe she was cold, but she was hiding it very well. Maybe, unlike me, she's acclimated. Maybe it's time I worked on that.

I had business to attend at my bank, five or six blocks away, and that girl didn't look cold, so I bundled up and went out. I stopped by the grocery, which is one of those expensive gourmet ones, and spent more than I should on a few items, but I learned that I can do it. I expect to go out today to do my laundry and tomorrow it's going up to the low 40's so maybe I'll go swimming. Anyway, this is a lesson I'd learned years ago, when to capitulate to the weather and when you just do what you gotta do. The New York Times says pretty much the same thing in an opinion piece this morning, so I must be on the right track. (Already I'm learning to gauge my intellect on whether the Times coincides with my own views; I must be adapting.

Everything is different here from the things that had become everyday to me in Lower Alabama (aka L.A.). So far, so good. I always thought I was pretty good at change.