After months of diligently working up a tan and putting in long hours at the pool, something peculiar happens. We see it coming; we feel it. The leaves take dancing lessons and the wind has a sort of energy about it. The promises of pumpkin patches and costume parties put a smile on our faces.
However, this rush of excitement and seasonal change has a cost. Fall cannot stay and nothing green will last. More change is on the way.
The fire-y leaves will be extinguished from their beauty. Trees will shrink timid and fearful. Animals will hibernate as will shorts and sandals. Look around, for it is here.
The frigid bitch has come. Winter has arrived.
She brings us bone chilling temperatures and her laugh stings us in the face by way of a cold and dry wind. She spends her mornings
watching us pry open our frozen-shut car doors only so we later can slip and slide on black-iced roads.
Pipes burst and schools close, skin cracks and flights cancel. Power lines break, the flu rages it’s war, summer vacations are only dreamed about, and yet there are some people who claim this to be their favorite season.
Some people are summer people, others lovers of fall, and a few can’t wait for spring. This leaves that last group. They must be confused or perhaps blind and numb to physical feeling. They are winter people.
And then there is a smaller, more select group of people, the most dedicated group of all. These people are triumphant, huddling in packs, shaking and quivering. Nothing can stop them. They are the brave, the bold: the smokers. I have never seen such unwavering loyalty on a sidewalk. I am no smoker myself, but if I were I’d have to say I couldn’t do it in this weather. I’d be a sort of “seasonal smoker.” So kudos to those of you who pollute your lungs when it’s too cold to breathe anyway. Really, I solute you.
So as you trudge your way through the arctic blast, curse this bitch and her ice-y cruel ways because don’t you worry, her reign is not forever. Hatching ducklings, fuzzy bunnies, April showers and May flowers will rule the world before you know it!
Alexandria Smiles 