Call me crazy if you must

I'm about to confess something that, here in South Dakota, makes me at worst a heretic and at best, a little bit crazy.  The end of August for us signals the beginning of the cooler weather of Autumn.  And of course up here, no one thinks about Autumn.  Its just the season that leads us into winter.  And so, when the day comes that the temperature doesn't get above 80 for the first time, no one is happy and says "What a nice day it is."  No, of course we have to start freaking out and think, "65 today, -30 tomorrow" and inevitably they sink into winter despair many, many weeks before winter actually starts and months before anyone will be feeling anything close to -30.

I, on the other hand,  have been looking at the onset of cooler days a little bit differently.  Of course I am enjoying every moment of the beautiful weather that I can, knowing they won't last, but here is my confession; I'm actually looking forward to winter a little.

Maybe its because of the nature of a job that gets so much more interesting in the winter.  (Not to mention more profitable)  Call it sick, but one of my favorite things about my job is helping people find a coat who have never before experienced a Sioux Falls winter.  Its just fun, okay?  I see the panic in their eyes as I ask them if they've ever experienced 30 below.  It reminds me of myself.  I had these horrible visions of how awful winter would be.  In my mind it quickly turned from a mere season to a monster with icicles for teeth and frostbite for breath.  I enjoy attempting to reassure people that the buildup to winter is way worse than winter itself.  Sure its cold, and long, but its not the end of the world and spring is that much more awesome because of it.

I had this family who just moved from South Carolina come into the store a few days ago.  They bought three coats off of me, as if they were afraid that one morning they would wake up and be snowed into their house.  The mom kept asking "Now, these are winter coats, right?  They'll keep us warm all winter long?"  How do you tell someone that in winter at its worst, nothing keeps you truly warm.  Nothing.  Not if you're cold blooded like me.  Not if the coldest thing you've ever experienced is 40 ABOVE zero. I just smiled and said, "Well, make sure you come back when we get all our hats and gloves in.  We have some really cute stuff that will match your new coats well."

But while the fact that it makes my job way less boring is a big plus for winter, I'm also looking forward to a lot of other things about winter.  Winter means hot chocolate, (add chocolate chips, milk, caramel syrup, and marshmallows and hot chocolate suddenly becomes heavenly) games with friends with only a ice crusted window keeping the wind at bay.  Winter means snow, which I still love, and the sound of shovels against cement, which reminds me of waking up as a kid to my dad shoveling our driveway.  That sound meant snow days! Winter means my friends quit traveling everywhere and we can just be together.  Winter means that you can go out to a park, or walk on the river, and experience the most exquisite silence that you have to hear to believe.  No birds singing, no bugs buzzing, no cars honking.  Even your own voice seems to leave your mouth and drop frozen to the snow.  Silence extraordinary.

I love the changing of the seasons.  Always have.  When spring comes around, I will be just as excited for that.  Probably more so, actually.