Brrrr: First big chill

Can you feel the cold? (back of the Star-Trib building)

It’s cold. For those of you who like numbers, it’s been negative numbers the past few days. About an hour ago it was -3 (feels like -19) and since has warmed up to 0, feels like -16. It was a real -14 when I woke up this morning. (All y’all down south complaining about 40s and 50s — stop.)

On my way home, I heard a metallic BANG from behind me. The case of pop in the backseat exploded. Cans froze and split in half. They busted holes in the cardboard box. Plus for subzero temperatures: It never got warm enough for the frozen soda to melt so cleanup was easy.

My poor car. Just six months ago I put it through 100+ degree heat in New Orleans. This morning the little temperature gauge said -5 and never went above 4. The streets are terrible. I see plows but I don’t think they’re actually doing anything except making huge walls of snow in the middle of the street. It’s only a matter of time before the car gets beached on one. Also, the plastic door handle snapped off so I have to roll down the window and open it from the outside. I blame the cold.

We got a few inches of snow over the weekend. It’s beautiful, but I can’t enjoy it when it’s this cold. No snowmen, snow angels, snow forts… Because I live in a basement apartment, I don’t even know how much has fallen until I have to push the door open to leave.

The ski area is set to open this weekend — right when we’re expected to warm up to 30s and 40s.