Baby, it’s cold outside and if you’re like most of the US right now (except for those lucky dogs in Hawaii), you’re probably “feelin’ the love” from our Canadian neighbors in the form of arctic cold fronts catching a ride along the Gulf Stream. Hard to believe winter has arrived with such a vengeance and so early in the season. Even the Deep South is experiencing cold weather (it’s 28 in Atlanta today and only 40 in Houston at this writing).

Apart from the snow shoveling (which, can I just say for the record, am already sick of doing?), there’s that whole thing trying to keep both me and Sam warm while getting in our daily exercise. This has not been an easy task either.

The National Western Stock Show opens this week in Denver and for some inexplicable reason, the temperatures always are quite cold. The joke in town is when temps plummet, we say, “oh, it must be Stock Show week.” I mean, I love a longhorn cattle parade down 17th Street every January as much as the next person (that’s somewhat sarcastic on my part but loads of people seem to like it…whatever), but I am so over the bitter temperatures that accompany it every. single. year. 🙁

So naturally temps dropped to bitter at the beginning of this week. But inexplicably, each cold day has been followed by one where the temps were more like mid-October. It was 61 freaking degrees on Tuesday. I thought I was in a time warp when I left work. That night however, another cold front arrived and you know what that means. Can you say melt/freeze cycle?

After melting snow, you get a nice layer of ice. I was putting my recycling bin out for pick-up the other morning and  fell trying to maneuver the bin through deep ice ruts in the alley and suffering bruises & bumps to forehead, knee and keester for good measure [insert appropriate expletive here]. Of course Sam came bouncing over immediately to investigate what was up with all the swearing and why wasn’t I getting up immediately. There’s nothing like having your dog race over to you while you’re trying to clear the stars out of your head and him thinking “Gee, I think she wants to play!”

Once I assured him it was in fact, not play-time, I hobbled back into the house and applied some Arnica gel right away. If you bruise as easily as I do (and are, ahem…as equally graceful as I am 🙂 ), then you NEED this stuff. It works like magic reducing and even eliminating bruises and promotes healing. I got lucky the bruising was kept to a minimum and the pain only lasted overnight. Whew…dodged a bullet this time.

Apparently, Mother Nature is an equal opportunity beotch when it comes to weather, because Sam took a digger on the ice the next day. He gave me that WTH was that all about look, as if I had something to do with his crash and burn. Luckily he didn’t suffer any injuries and the good news is he’s not running at full speed like a maniac…as much.

Why it is you pull out the heavy-duty coats and hats early enough, but seem late in taking out the seriously warm gloves/mittens every winter? It took me a day or two to pull those suckers out and of course every day I felt like I had frostbitten fingers. We’re bundled up like Alaskan Eskimos, donning layers of wool under a terribly unflattering puffy coat (don’t you hate looking like the Mrs. to the Michelin man?), wearing two sets of gloves, sherpa lined boots and hitching Sam up with his fleece-lined coat and boots to prevent ice balls from forming and we’re still freezing. We look like unattractive extras from the movie Frozen and more than a few times have had to abbreviate our morning constitution because of the damn Stock Show effect.

Yup, it’s cold out there, baby. But because I’m a glass half-full kind of gal, I’m celebrating each additional minute of sunlight with every passing winter day. 🙂 Now where did I put the Yaktrax crampons for my boots? Sigh.

How do you and your pets deal with frigid weather? Stay safe and warm till warmer days arrive. Live-love-bark! <3