I've been mulling about the cold weather we've had this winter, in comparison to the last two years. It's time to call a halt to it. At least I think so.

An update -- It's now Thursday morning and the mercury stands at 10 degrees. The old Underwood (typewriter for those unsuspecting) still has the paper in the carriage with the above paragraph where I started this 'cuff' yesterday afternoon before an interruption. Maybe it would be best if I just dropped the subject of weather.

However ... I'll bet you aren't surprised there is more to come. And it does involve the weather. The kind I remember about those we endured many years ago when I walked to school -- uphill both ways. Kids today don't know how lucky they are.

Seriously, I don't believe it was as cold during those long walks. It really was about a quarter of a mile from home to school. And it was uphill, at least a part of both directions. There was usually a walk home for lunch since the lunch break then was an hour. School started at 9 o'clock and dismissed at four that afternoon. In mid-winter, the walks bordered on dark-thirty. I didn't walk very fast.

But, looking back, the temperature didn't seem that cold. I've come to the conclusion it was due to the weather forecasts and reports. Of course there was no television, and sometimes the radio battery would go dead. But the big thing then was predicting and reporting the actual cold temperatures. Not the daggum wind-chill stuff that fills the tube these days.

A 10-degree reading then meant 10 degrees. Now 10 degrees is lightly touched on by the prognosticators who then spend the next 10 minutes, with shivering voices and hysterical expressions of disbelief on their faces as they predict the dreaded wind-chill will be as much as 10-below zero. Makes me shiver just thinking about it.

Stirring up the emotions with such dire predictions doesn't help the psyche a bit. Of course, it's good to warn folks to bundle up the kids, something that wasn't necessary for parents of those years gone by. But do they have to compound the anticipated with wind chill? Brrrrrrrrr.

The same is true in the summer time, what was 95 degrees then is still 95 degrees. But today that is usually followed by that hideous egg-frying-on-the-sidewalk report that the heat index tops the century mark by 10 or 15 degrees. Makes the sweat pop out on my brow just thinking about it even though it's 10 degrees; make that sub-zero with today's wind chill this morning.

Ah, well. We live with what we have. Some of it is good; some is depressing. But to me, one indisputable fact stands out: climate change is occurring ... every day, every year, every century. Such has been occurring for centuries. And man had very little, if anything, to do with it during those mini ice ages of yore.

That's enough for this time. But I do want to add one little line that I accidentally omitted -- forgot-- in the above report from my childhood days: That walk to and from school, uphill both ways, was always with several inches of snow -- make that at least a foot on the ground -- from early November until mid-March. Or was it April?

Spring is coming. Enjoy today. It's the best day we have. In spite of that daggum wind chill.

Dodie Evans is the editor emeritus of the Westside Eagle Observer and may be contacted by email at [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author.