And then it turned cold. There are two kinds of cold. There is the kind that makes you think, \u201cShoot, I should have put on another layer of clothing.\u201d And then there is, \u201cShoot, that extra layer of clothing has frozen to my flesh \u2026 and my toes have turned black \u2026 and I can\u2019t feel my eyeballs \u2026 or see out of them \u2026\u201d <\/p>\n
And a few other choice details that make you realize bears have it right when they think, \u201cSkip that! I\u2019m going to sleep it off in a warm cave all winter.\u201d<\/p>\n
But not us humans. And not us Floridians. See, some of us get it in our head that it would be great to escape the nagging Florida heat with a long weekend in the mountains of North Carolina to see some changing leaves and fall weather. <\/p>\n
Doesn\u2019t that sound wonderful? <\/p>\n
That is, until a polar wave that turned the Midwest into a frozen ice rink raced across the area, bringing winds gusting to 50 mph and temperatures plunging to 18 degrees. The high didn\u2019t even get above freezing one day. \u201cThere\u2019s a big, burning ball of hydrogen right there,\u201d I remember thinking. \u201cHow is this possible?!?\u201d
\n<\/p>\n
This is too much for a third-generation Floridian. But my wife loved it. It took her back to her childhood growing up on Long Island where winters got so cold, you sat around all day by a fire drinking hot cocoa, reading books and dreaming about going to college in Florida. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is my ideal vacation,\u201d she said in the vacation rental, arms out like Julie Andrews in \u201cThe Sound of Music.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cIdeal?!?\u201d I said. \u201cI put a cup of water outside last night, and not only did it freeze, it cursed me out. I\u2019ve only been up for 20 minutes and I\u2019m already bored stiff. I\u2019m thinking about re-drywalling their back room.\u201d<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t like being cooped up. I like to be outside. Doing stuff. Wandering around or hiking or running or staring at rocks and thinking, \u201cI bet there\u2019s a big nugget of gold in there the size of my kidney.\u201d <\/p>\n
But the truth is, I don\u2019t know how big my kidney is. And I knew if I went outside, that organ of mine would definitely freeze. <\/p>\n
Outside I saw some deer dash by the window. \u201cStop!\u201d I shouted. \u201cWait for me!\u201d <\/p>\n
They kept going. I would have to figure out a way to be content inside. <\/p>\n
So, I did the unimaginable: I picked up a book, curled up on a sofa and read. <\/p>\n
And something quite incredible happened. I kind of liked it!<\/p>\n
I mean, it was excruciating. Lounging on a sofa when I could be experiencing cold-induced renal failure? But with no worries, no projects, no timelines or checklists, and no schedule. It was kind of \u2026 good. Contentment? Is that what it is? I looked it up: \u201ca state of happiness and satisfaction.\u201d It gave a sample sentence: \u201cHe found contentment in living a simple life in the country \u2026 when it got too dang cold to go outside.\u201d <\/p>\n
Yep, that\u2019s it! So, I drank coffee and read my book, and thought, maybe the bears had it right. Or maybe they should move to Florida. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
And then it turned cold. There are two kinds of cold. There is the kind that makes you think, \u201cShoot, I should have put on another layer of clothing.\u201d And then there is, \u201cShoot, that extra layer of clothing has frozen to my flesh \u2026 and my toes have turned black \u2026 and I can\u2019t feel my eyeballs \u2026 or see out of them \u2026\u201d And a few other choice details that make you realize bears have it right when they think, \u201cSkip that! I\u2019m going to sleep it off in a warm cave all winter.\u201d But not us humans. And not us Floridians. See, some of us get it in our head that it would be great to escape the nagging Florida heat with a long weekend in the mountains of North Carolina to see some changing leaves and fall weather. Doesn\u2019t that sound wonderful? That is, until a polar wave that turned the Midwest into a frozen ice rink raced across the area, bringing winds gusting to 50 mph and temperatures plunging to 18 degrees. The high didn\u2019t even get above freezing one day. \u201cThere\u2019s a big, burning ball of hydrogen right there,\u201d I remember thinking. \u201cHow is this possible?!?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573,565,569],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2018-nutshells","category-travel","category-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1828"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1829,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1828\/revisions\/1829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}