Sunday, December 20, 2009

Cold Days

When we pulled up to the house tonight, the temperature was a mild 24 degrees Fahrenheit. Twenty-four degrees? Mild? Surely Mr. Brooks has lost his marbles, or perhaps they have just frozen.

No, you see, everything is relative. We have just returned home from a trip to Santa's Village, about 90 miles north of here in Jefferson, New Hampshire. When we got out of the car at 11:00 in the morning, the temperature was nine degrees. Get the picture?

And it was a little breezy. Now if you read anything concerning wind chill, you will find different formulae that all boil down to the same thing. If you take a nominal temperature of nine degrees Fahrenheit, factor in a ten mile-per-hour breeze blowing on your bare face or neck, and do some fancy calculations on those numbers, the perceived temperature is TOO DAMN COLD, plus or minus a degree or two.

Fortunately, Santa's Village has added something new to their menu. You can buy thermal mugs and fill them with hot cocoa for free all day. We know from past experience that hot chocolate is the big gun in the Jefferson survival arsenal (and to prove it, we see park employees who have to work outside, meaning most of them, guzzling it throughout the day).

Actually, this trip wasn't as bad as our first. Though the weather was better the first time, our preparations were not, as we made the mistake of predicting Jefferson's weather based on our own, since we're both in the same state and only a couple hours' drive apart. Oops! Now we know better.

It's late now and I have to get to bed. I wouldn't have stayed up this late, but I always get a bit of an adrenaline rush (not to mention a caffeine high) when I take the driving duty late at night, and it's hard to drop off to sleep. Good time to take care of things, don't you think?

But there is a busy day ahead. We have to shuffle some furniture around in our living room to make it nice for the Christmas tree, and I have a read-through tomorrow night for the next play I'm in, a farce called "Dilemmas With Dinner." Carol Bense is directing; I've worked with her on several shows now and it's always a pleasure, especially since she won't let us get away with anything but the best we can give, and I'm always glad of it.

I also get to share the stage with five people I've acted with before, one I've directed but never acted with, and another I've never worked with before at all, but who gave a great performance at the auditions. This is going to be a great show!

But now I'd better get some sleep. Didn't I already say that?

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