I hope you were able to get outside for a little bit yesterday, because there was something special in the air. It returns right around this time every year. There is that one day where you notice that slight difference. There’s a little bit of moisture when you breathe it in. There is that little bit of something different in the smell too. And for those of us who languish during the average Wisconsin winter, that little thing is hope.
There is a term for those long, hot, humid days of late July and August: the Dog Days of Summer. But we don’t really have a term for that seemingly endless period of cold and dark after the holidays in the winter. The Three Dog Nights of Winter would be perfect (the Canadian band took there name for a colloquial description of a very cold winter night when people would encourage all the dogs to sleep on the bed with them for additional warmth) but I don’t know if that would catch on with Millenials–who believe nothing happened before the invention of the internet. Some of us are just at the point where we have tired of the sheer drudgery of waking in the dark, having to dress like we are headed on an Arctic expedition just to run the garbage to the curb, walking like penguins even in the house because we are so used to slippery driveways, parking lots, and sidewalks outside, and having to justify trips anywhere because it means spending more time out in the cold.
Because I’m a sports nut, I mark the passing of winter in terms of events–and just make it a goal to not go crazy before the next one comes around. There’s the Thanksgiving Day football games. After that, we just have to make to the college bowl games. Then let’s just get through the holidays.
My favorite week of winter is the first week in January, as the PGA Tour plays the Sentry Tournament of Champions at the Kapalua Plantation Course on Maui. For those four days of prime-time golf coverage, I can literally feel myself back on the 18th tee with the trade winds blowing on my face, the smell of the ocean air, and the site of humpback whales breaching out of the water in the channel in front of Molokai.
But after that week, It’s nothing but dark and cold again for more than a month until the Super Bowl and the AT&T Pro-Am at Pebble Beach–where I am reminded of one of the two ultimate bucket list experiences I still have ahead of me. After that it is a daily struggle again just to get to the start of the WIAA basketball playoffs and the jolt of energy being in a little gym packed with crazed fans and the desperation of a single-elimination game.
Fortunately, my parents winter in Florida–which provides us with a cheap travel option to get away from the crushing despair of our never-ending winter around here. One of the first years my wife and I went down there, they had record “cold” temperatures one morning–37-degrees (it was one of the polar vortex winters–so it was -15 for a high here in Wisconsin). I was the only person on the driving range–wearing a pullover and not even my cold-weather golf gloves. Two older ladies drove up in the golf cart–which had a cover on it and they had the propane heater blasting away inside. One of them zipped down the plastic window and called out “You are certainly brave to be out here this morning!” And I yelled back, “It’s 50-degrees warmer than where I just came from. This is like paradise today!” And they drove off laughing–both at my witty bon mot–and likely because they were so happy they never had to go back to that kind of weather.
Unfortunately, the return from our week and a half of weather bliss is a return to several more weeks of snow, cold, freezing rain, and persistent cloud cover that makes you wonder if you even should have unpacked the t-shirts and shorts from the luggage–since it doesn’t look like you will need them at all this year.
But then days like yesterday come along where it’s unseasonably mild and you can walk outside without the -32-degree-rated coat unzipped and maybe not put on your mountain climbing gloves. And there seems to be some light at the end of the tunnel. You can taste the Leinie’s Summer Shandy on the back patio while you grill those steaks wearing your flip flops and not have worry about slipping on the icy steps going back into the house. You can imagine the majestic golf drives soaring down lush green fairways framed by trees full of green leaves–while songbirds fill the air with their calls. And you can recall what it is like to just grab your keys and head out of the house without having to throw on three layers Canadian goose down cold weather gear just avoid freezing to death on your ten minute run to the grocery store.
There was that little bit of hope in the air yesterday. Now we just have to hold on to it for oh……….another 3-months.
