Long Winters

A number of visitors to my office, mostly those over 60 and either Playing in the Last Quarter or pretty damn near to it, have been expressing how long this Winter that is threatening to end has been. I'm in agreement with them. Some many years ago, I've been told, someone introduced a non-migratory Goose into the Northeast of the USA that looks a lot like a Canadian Goose but doesn't remember how to get out of the way of Winter. They gang about in fields all year not knowing where to go, inciting the locals to complain about the mess they leave behind. "go South," I tell them. "Winter is long and cold." Each passing year makes me more sensitive to the cold .... Makes the passage in Psalms ("before his chill, who can stand?")more understandable. I suspect M and I have been together for 48 years in no short measure due to her warmth ... Not only her emotional warmth but the fact that her body temp is several degrees higher than mine. I air conditioner her in the Summer; she warms me in the Winter when I can get snarky and 'discontented' by the slowing down of my Thyroid gland .... that little piece of tissue that among many other functions acts to heat the body indirectly by controlling metabolism and such. 'Silly Goose, fly South. Get thee to Costa Rica or Rio ....' Half the folk in the USA think that Global Warming is a hoax perpetrated by young scientists on old hypothyroid people huddling together to stay warm. As it is not written: 'Oh, my Sweet Lord ... Next year in Costa rica! .... For it gets so cold, You know ... My Sweet Lord!'