Mari Ness - Just for the record....

For all of you Northerners up there saying that I'm weak-blooded, the weather reports have confirmed that Friday morning was indeed record-breakingly (is that a word?) cold down here. It was, in fact, so cold that the radio station felt impelled to offer a special Cold Friday Morning Warning:

"Again, if you HAVEN'T STARTED YOUR CARS YET THIS MORNING, THUMP ON THE HOOD!!! Broward County Animal Control is begging everybody to THUMP ON THEIR CAR HOODS BEFORE STARTING UP THEIR CARS. THUMP LOUDLY AT LEAST THREE TIMES AND THEN LOOK UNDER THE CAR. MANY STRAY CATS HAVE CLIMBED INTO THE CAR HOOD. IF YOU START THE CAR WITH A CAT INSIDE YOUR ENGINE, YOU WILL DAMAGE THE ENGINE."

Nothing, mind you, was said about the damage to the CAT. Just the engine.

This did not surprise the receptionist at my office at all, who offered up this saga: "Yes, you should thump your car. My neighbors didn't and then they ended up with blood all over their engine and it cost them three thousand dollars to fix the engine, plus they felt sorry for the cat, so they ended up spending another thousand on the cat and they were stuck with a three-legged cat."

See, cold can have all kinds of unexpected effects.

The cold has led to all kinds of fervent conversation about the weather, like this:

"Oh, it's cold!"

"Yes, it's cold!"

Brief pause.

"It's really cold!"

Sometimes broken by conversational tidbits like this:

"Who stole all the hot chocolate?"

So I don't always participate in sparkling, witty conversations. Although I have had a few intense conversations about the orange crop (saved) and the strawberry crop (dead) and the methods of removing cats from blankets (less exciting than the car engine sagas).

It's a bit warmer today, though, and I have hot coffee, hot soup, cheese sandwiches, and other hot things to encourage me to do a bit more work on this freelance project this weekend. I suppose it is just as well that it isn't a lovely, warm, beach perfect day.