Once upon a time

I feel like my world has been inching towards the North Pole the last few years.

First we had a forty below winter, which had never happened before in the sixty some years I have been on this earth (close to this actual place.)

Now we are having snow and ice in the Fall, which of course gives even more meaning to that nomenclature.

But then I began having polar bear dreams where our town was surrounded by a very tall chain link fence with the bears pacing around the outside.

This morning I left the house at nine wearing ice cleats on my shoes and carrying a small bowl of ice melt to scatter along the way. I felt a bit like Hansel and Gretal might have felt, if the evil witch was black ice. I scraped my car and let the defroster melt the rest away as I talked to Bestest. Then I bumped and slid down our poorly cleared street until I got to the clear ones closer to town. Finally picking up my daughter and taking her to work, I arrived back home near eleven.

I get to repeat much of that later today when I pick her up.

And we will live frigidly ever after with bad roads, slippery sidewalks and icy weather for the rest of what feels like an interminable winter.