Cold as a Witches Nipple
There’s a kind of cold that finds crevices, that seeps through layers, that renders life immobile. It felt her up, while she stood knee-deep in spun sugar and watched it twinkle like glitter in the air. It breached her mittens and wool coat. Slipped under her sweater. Seared her skin like flame.
Ice crystals beat like cymbals when she gulped air, held her breath, and dove in. Her fingers frosted over on contact. She couldn’t feel her feet, and her face mimicked childhood: whatever expression she held, it froze that way. As she fanned her arms and legs and took in the open sky, she hoped paralysis rendered a smile.
Battles are won and lost in arctic cold. Some survive it. Others are chilled to sleep by the icy stabs of winter’s jagged teeth. Every encounter with single digits is a duel with nature.
She watched the landscape change underneath her feet. Fought the unexpected urge to fall as the ground gave way to a filmy crust of dubious thickness. It was like walking in soft sand at the edge of an ocean, underpinned by permafreeze.
It was the hill that did it. When she sat on the plastic saucer. When she leaned back and crossed her legs. When she took one last aching breath of air. She rocketed through space on a ribbon of white, screaming with a pitch of the first time, and she fell in love with the enchantment and brutality of the Wisconsin winter.
This post is part of the series Doing It Our Way, an homage to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, birthplace of MTM. If this is your first visit to the series, like all of these winter activities were firsts for me, please click here to read from the beginning. Thank you for reading, for subscribing and for sharing my blog with your world.
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Brrrr!!!!
It was very cold.
Way to keep it G rated! I love the snow when it is still white and fresh. Looks like you were having a great time. Who won the ice saber battle?
MTM impaled himself with his icicle. I’m sure you know that trick, Robert, though I, sadly, did not and was appalled at first.
Very dramatic stuff. Sled ride looked great. My fingers die in the cold, and that’s about to happen as I’ve got to cut wood this frosty morning:)
Roger, I hope the lather from the wood cutting counteracted the cold. My fingers and toes suffer in the cold, too.
Haha. Love your style. That was the leaned back, La-Z-Boy Recliner method of sledding. Awesome
MTM’s mom even put shoe polish on the bottom of the thing to make it slicker.
Looks fun. But cold. Too cold. And we didn’t even get a good “splat!” moment at the end of the sled ride. I was at hoping that you would take out the camera man – or at least go sailing off into a bush.
Glad you are not a frozen nipple-cicle though.
I was frozen solid, here and there. It was really cold that last day, the sledding day.
Your first sled ride?? My, such a sheltered life you have led. That’s one of the fond memories I have of growing up in a snowy state like Ohio, sledding all day as a kid. We used sleds with runners so we could sorta steer them to a degree. Of course, the only reason we wanted to steer them was to be able to crash into each other, especially the cootie girls.
Crash into each other………why am I not surprised, Lou?
Ah, this is just what I needed to get my day started. Yay! Loved the pictures and your blog reached out and touched me with those cold hands as I read. Brrrrrr. Full of joy you are.
At least I didn’t get snow down my pants like my sister-in-law.
So glad to know that after the hellish time getting there, that you are able to enjoy the snow and winter delights. And for a contrast, back now in 60+ degree weather on the coast of South Carolina.
Happy New Year!
Yes, my body is in shock.
That looks like the makings of an awfully good snow angel, Andra. We drove past all the snow of Wisconsin yesterday afternoon, coming home to cold, but, no snow! Sigh. Glad you finally made it to the city that made beer famous.
Happy New Year!
Penny, I was even in Chicago for a while on the 29th. What a nightmare of a trip, but it was all flurries when we got there. Nothing stuck.
So glad you finally reached Wisconsin and your date with the snow. I’ve gotten chilled to the bone just looking, but that sled ride did look like a lot of fun. I might be tempted if I could get on a plane afterward and head back to the warm…..
Karen, that’s my limit with winter: go look at it, play in it for a bit, and come back to a place that’s warm. I couldn’t deal with shoveling and snow blowing and all that every day for months.
WHEEEEEEEE
It was glorious. Cold and glorious.
Andra, the way you describe the cold is exactly how I feel the cold, every time. It cuts right through me. I like the getting warm again feeling afterwards though!!!
Especially when a hot drink is involved.
Happy New Year, Tom.
And Happy New Year to you to!
Glad to see you having some winter fun after your trip through hell.
I have never heard of shoe polish on the bottom of a sled…we used to rub soap bars on our sled rudders and saucers. We would even take the handles off of the trash can lids and use the lids as our sleds.
It was a plastic disc of some sort. Like a trash can lid, but without the handle on top. It was dee-lightful.
Wonderful photos! My goodness but that is cold, cold, cold! Fun memory making, though!