Today is Winter Solstice, and despite what some people on those lush little Pacific Northwest islands say, this is the beginning of winter, at least for those of us here in the East. Not its middle, as folks in milder climes perversely insist. Everything till now has been foreplay. The coming months, however, bring deep, penetrating cold. On the West Coast, the temperatures won’t vary much, and it will seem as though things are on the up and up as the days actually start getting longer. But we know better here: we will see Februaries and even Marches filled with rock-solid snow. It’s possible, I suppose, that with global climate change – warming trends – those icy insertions into our more comfortable, industrial-shaped lives will lessen. But there’s the element of spikyness, the “global weirding” part.
