Cold

The long cold fingers of a northern winter have wrapped themselves around Holland and will not let go. We are in a choke hold of cold. I have the serendipitous luck to have found myself in Europe's bitterest winter of the past 60 years right as I have lost my tolerance for temperatures lower than 10C.

Over the last two months I have travelled to Paris, Rotterdam, and Delft, and should have been able to write beautiful, romantic blog accounts of those great cities. Stories of architecture students from University of Utah discovering European candy and treats, walking the cobble-stoned streets, and learning to decifer Dutch tram systems. But all those anecdotal stories have been beaten out of my mind by the lashing winds, and the dropping temperatures that have caused my skin to cringe.

I fantasize as I am biking through town that really, I am feeling this cold because someone has just emptied a tray of icecubes into my clothes, and is rubbing me down with them.

We have had a few small glimpses of it letting up- wee flowers bursting through the underbrush. Yesterday I was optimistic- it warmed up enough to take off the 2nd layer of pants. But, today it is back.

Frigid wind. Frigid air, and grey grey endless skies which have lost sight of the sun.