Our weather in South Georgia is unpredictable. I know that. You know that. We all know it. As such, I don’t say much about our weather. We can experience all four seasons in one day. The seasons sometimes change five or six times in a week.
It can be a little frustrating at times. But it’s also part of the charm of living in this area.
But enough is enough.
I like it when the weather cools off. I don’t like it when we get hit with a blast straight from the armpit of Antarctica. And that is what we’ve been dealing with for the last couple of days. It’s not going to be much better for the rest of the week, either.
It has left me frozen, bewildered, depressed, and infuriated. It takes a lot to get me outraged. In all honesty, I admire those of you who take on the mantle of social justice.
About eight years ago, I tried to get outraged. I really did. In the end, all it did was inconvenience me. At this point, I’m too set in my ways and too stubborn to get outraged. It would take a lot to get me upset enough to stage any kind of protest, either personal or public.
However, I have reached that point. Monday morning at 10:30, I’m staging a protest against ice downtown. Ice and cold weather have invaded our community and I’ve had it with both.
The cold weather is a violation of our constitutional rights. It’s fractured my family. And it’s costing me money.
When I think of our great nation, of course the first thing that comes to mind are the freedoms we enjoy – freedoms that are guaranteed by the Constitution. I oppose anything that infringes upon our constitutional rights. While I’m certainly no constitutional scholar, I seem to remember from my 9th grade Civics class that the Constitution grants us the right to bare arms.
I haven’t been outside without some kind of jacket, hoodie, long sleeved shirt, or all of the above in quite a while. It has me a little confused – I’ve never figured out how often you’re supposed to wash a hoodie or a jacket. It seems a little wasteful to wash a hoodie each time you wear it. But sometimes if I wear one all day, I feel like I should wash it. I’m kind of particular about wearing clean clothes; if I get the feeling something is dirty, I don’t want to wear it. In every group, there’s usually one person with questionable hygiene. I don’t want that person to be me.
Jackets – I kind of get it. I’ve got jackets that haven’t been washed in a long, long time. But at the same time, I don’t wear jackets much. If I’m not going to be outside for very long, a lot of times I’ll just go short sleeved. I can take some fairly cold temperatures without having to bundle up.
My threshold for short sleeves, however, has long since passed. I have been planning my wardrobe the night before since about last Wednesday. I have to make sure that I have enough clothes under which to bundle. It’s frustrating and irritating.
If only I could exercise my right to bare arms, none of this would be an issue.
It’s also taken a toll on my family. As the day winds down, we tend to gravitate to our preferred rooms. This is oftentimes driven by climate – Heather likes it cooler than I do. She likes ceiling fans on. I do not. I like to turn on a heater and warm the room. She does not.
These frigid temperatures have changed that. It is too cold for her and she wants my heater. She also wants my room because it gets warmer quicker than her TV spot. Of course I lose that battle every time. So I end up cold, isolated, and ostracized.
I cannot take much more.
To top it off, I can’t imagine what this cold spell is going to cost me. We try to be conscious of our energy bill. Heather is especially good at this. She keeps our household climate at a consistent and reasonable temperature – not too warm in the winter, not too cool in the summer. Electricity is too valuable to use liberally.
In this kind of weather, though, that goes out the window. She dusts off our best heater and camps out beside it. The only thing that bothers me about that is it’s also my favorite heater. When she has it, I don’t – which leaves me disappointed and cold. That heater gets quite a bit of use in sub-freezing temperatures.
And that use comes with a price. I am dreading seeing the next few power bills. Christmas hits hard every year. We need time to recover and catch our collective breath. There will be no such recovery this January. The power company will have its hands open and waiting. It won’t take no for an answer.
I don’t like January or February. They are my least favorite months. They’re cold, gray, wind-swept, and the sports calendar is sparse. It’s really nothing but basketball – football is over and baseball hasn’t begun. They are not pleasant months.
This year, January has been even more so thanks to this brutal cold front that seems to like it down here. I’m tired of it. I’m ready for it to go. And I want to let it know.
If you feel the same way, gather with me at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow. Let’s get our rights, our families, our climate back. Let’s run the ice out of our community. Immediately.
