There was a freak rise in temperature yesterday.
And man did I need it. Short sleeves, windows down, music up… ephemeral heaven.
I felt unstoppable as I badassed my way through the day.
It was funny, though, I’d been dismantling my Christmas tree, when I went outside to get some fresh air and realized that it was so warm it was on the verge of humid. It was a startling surprise because when the weather’s so chronically godawful-ly cold, you don’t even bother to check the thermometer in the mornings after a while. You know it’s just going to read shittety-shit degrees (or lower) with a seven day forecast of “don’t bother checking back till March.” Thus, so long as the calendar reads something non-springy, you might as well just sit inside and rot until you’re forced to leave. Like I was, as I dragged the corpse of my conquest – a brittle structure I’d just done arboreal battle against and defeated. And I must be in good company with that don’t-bother mindset. Because when I put on a tee shirt and tights (my summer gear) to go enjoy a fantastic jog, I wasn’t alone in being the only jogger out there – but I was alone in my attire type. I was 100% comfortable. But the really interesting thing that happened, though, was that as I kept going, I started to doubt myself anyway.
I saw a man in a wool hat, heavy coat, and thick gloves.
“I didn’t really check the temperature before leaving,” I thought.
A child ran by in a puffy “A Christmas Story” coat with her mom in a matching ensemble.
“And I WAS just doing a lot of sweaty work tearing apart that tree…”
Suddenly, a man and woman drive by – looking like sentient marshmallows in their respective goosedowns.
“IS it actually cold? Am I cold? Maybe I AM co-…”
I got back to my car, and the first thing I checked was my phone. Indeed, it was somewhere between 60 and 70 degrees. I wasn’t going mad or getting sick. But it is fascinating how quickly we can doubt ourselves – even when we’re having the most epic of days, feel like superhero demi-gods, are in synch with the cosmos, and all’a that. Regardless of how great the natural high air balloon we’re riding in is, it starts to get holes in it when everyone else in the world is synchronizing something else. Even if that something’s a cocktail of stupidity and ignorance. I feel like this is a planetary theme that stretches far beyond a freak degree-high day in winter, don’t you?
So, this is your daily reminder to acclimate only to climates – not fellow primates.
Be a boss and not a follower.
Do your own thing.
Except when it comes to me. You can and should def follow what I’m doing.
Which, right now, is an anti-snow dance in order to summon more summery days.