Reflections on a Wintry Day

Today is a dreary winter day here in Granville.  A week ago on Tuesday we had a late January thaw with the temperature reaching 60+ degrees.  By Thursday wintry weather had returned with temperatures back in the single digits.  The snow which fell before Christmas and then melted with the thaw has been replaced due to fits of snow off and on so that once again the ground is snow covered.  A couple of the days were quite windy and it behooved one to bundle up well before venturing outside.  Whenever a door to the outside is opened as someone comes in or goes out, a blast of cold air enters chilling the air in our halls.  With extra openings in the areas under construct ion at both ends and in the middle there are lots of places leaking cold air into the halls as well. 

When I was growing up this was the kind of weather you liked to find a good book, a good apple, a bowl of freshly popped corn, and a comfy chair located in a warm cozy spot so you could curl up and read while the weather stayed outside.  Curling up in a warm cozy spot inside and reading or watching television is still a good way to spend a wintry afternoon or evening.   But the sort of stuff that's on television today makes reading more and more attactive - be it the old fashioned kind of book or one of the new-fangled Kindles or Nooks.

We are lucky that we have a well-supplied library in our community building and connections with the Granville Public Library that put a wide choice of books at our finger tips.  The fact that the library is open night and day also adds immeasurably to its convenience.

We are also lucky that our apartments have individual heat controls so we can keep them at whatever temperature suits each of us best.   Since each of us has a different metabolism and therefore a different tolerance for heat and cold, this is a really important feature for our personal year round comfort.

So tonight after supper I plan to curl up in my comfortable Lazy-Boy chair with the book I picked out yesterday afternoon in our library and settle in for an evening of enjoyment in my cozy living room.