In November, I wrote about words and how they affect
our lives, and how we are always adding new words to our lexicon. We were
barely a week into the New Year when we added two words that most of us had
never really used together before—polar
vortex. Of course we’d heard polar
before and usually associated it with
cold. Vortex, well that was a word most of us didn’t use in daily
conversation, but we soon learned putting the two words together meant we were
going through a cold—make that really cold—spell that hadn’t been felt in most
of the country for about 20 years. Some folks thought it was an expression made
up just for this brutal, bitter, bone-numbing weather we were having, but then
meteorologists set us straight by showing us 65 year old textbooks, and there
it was, polar vortex, a real weather phenomenon. Who knew? Well we soon did know
what it meant, how it felt, and mostly that we didn’t want it to come back
again.
I don’t mind cold weather, but this went beyond cold
and into I-can’t-stay-out-here-another-minute-pushing-this-blankety-blank-snow-or-I’m-to-die
mode. Fortunately, we never lost power but there were many who did, and so I didn’t
want to complain. We had plenty of food and didn’t have to go out to work or do
anything other than shovel snow for two days. The biggest problem came in
letting our two dogs out. Cabin fever set in quickly and of course they felt it
necessary to check and see if the weather had changed since the last time (10
minutes ago) they’d been out. About the
middle of the first day, they figured out their paws were going to freeze if
they tried to stay out and plowing through snow up to their necks was not all
that fun. Apparently they didn’t pass the word on to the cats and the more
daring one made a midnight dash out the door (while I was pushing more snow to
keep the doorway open) and under the backyard deck. After a few seconds of my
pounding on the deck with my snow shovel to convince him this wasn’t time for
fun and games and then resorting to going for the bag of cat treats to entice
him back inside, Zombie decided himself that this probably wasn’t a good game
to play, came scrambling out and was happy to go back into the warm house. I
guess turning into a kitty Popsicle didn’t hold any appeal for him.
A few other fond memories of that week: The snow blower
blades freezing up and having to drag the space heater into the garage to thaw
it out. The sliding door freezing open and then shut. Wearing two pairs of
gloves and still having numb fingers within minutes of being outside. Hearing
the scientific explanation of polar vortex
30 times a day.
So now that we all know what it means and that it’s
real and it’s become part of our vocabulary, we all hope it won’t come back for
another visit this winter. But it is 11 degrees today, and I’ve heard it whispered
that we might be in for another plunge into the deep freeze next week. At least
this time we’ll know what we’re in for and those two words won’t make us wonder
what on earth is going on. Of course we’ll still complain, it’s just human
nature, and to be honest, I’m not sure I would want to trade places with the
folks Down Under who, while we are dealing with the polar vortex, are
experiencing 108 degrees. Doesn’t sound fun to me either.
