BY JOHN MCLOONE

I’m going to miss you people, most of you at least.
It’s been nice to know you. I’ll see you on the other side…of winter.
The first rude cold blast took me aback at Thanksgiving. I had a bird and a beast to grill for the family party, and it required significantly more outdoor activity than someone like me is built for. Sure, I look swarthy, and I have – perhaps unintentionally – bulked up for the season, but I was ready to wave the flag of surrender, and it was still November. It would have been like if the troops on D-Day dipped their toes in the English Channel on the British side and decided to wait until spring. I knew I had to fight on, plus my favorite 4-year-old wanted help from “Old Grandpa” to navigate her bike, so duty called.
I exclaimed when I finally was able to return to a source of warmth that I already had spent more time outside than I did all last winter. And I wasn’t kidding.
More cold ensued in the days after, and then there was talk of a warm-up. People were making plans for last-minute outdoor Christmas preparations and getting other chores done. The problem is there is a difference in what defines a “warm up” to me and the rest of the folks in this region. I was thinking maybe some nice sunshine and the thermometer hitting 50. Sure, the wind wasn’t particularly biting over the weekend, but the mercury in my neighborhood never got out of the 30s.
And now it’s expected to plummet into Arctic numbers this week. I give. I unconditionally surrender to this enemy. Put me in the brig until spring, as long as it’s heated.
As I’ve not-so-gracefully aged, every winter is harder than the last. We were all spoiled last year with a winter that we were told was because of climate change. I think it’s always changing, because it’s changed for the worse this year.
I’ve always been more suited for indoor pursuits, rather than those of the outdoor variety. I try to go from a warm vehicle to a warm home with as few steps as possible. I do have an office in my home, and it could get a lot of use the next three or four or five months, as long as it takes.
Sure, I must have had my fair share of fun in the snow at some time in my young life. I actually used to ski. I ice skated a time or two. I went sledding and built snow forts as a kid. I also walked a four-mile paper route through knee deep snow. I’ve pushed cars out of ditches and maybe even visited one myself. The latter events are the ones I remember, perhaps because Old Grandpa’s memory is fading.
So, it’s farewell for now. The Good Lord willing, I’ll see you in the spring.