Frozen, and Not from Global Warming

It’s been cold for so long, and it’s only early winter. I have jackets of different thicknesses lying around the house, ready to layer or remove as the temperature outside fluctuates by fifty degrees. My plants are covered as they struggle to survive the winter that is normally mild in this sub-tropical location. Something is happening, and it’s not just my imagination.

As I write, I have on three layers of tops along with a thick wool lap-robe covering my legs. My hands and face are cold despite the gas heat that runs almost continually. Outside is dark under a new moon and quiet with no one, human or otherwise, on the streets. The night sounds I usually hear — the hum of distant traffic, the rustle of animals near the house, the occasional vehicle passing the door — are absent. The only sound I hear is the unsettling cry of a pack of coyotes in the distance, celebrating a kill. It’s a frozen world and a taste of what the world would be like year-round if we entered a new Ice Age.