Cranky is allowed if you remember to embrace the happy

You just never know what the day will bring.

Although I’m an indoor sort of gal, this crazy weather, what little time I spend in it, has tested me to my limit. With those days of below-zero temperatures, and even colder with windchill factored in, I have felt a chill in my bones that has been hard to shake.

I like to joke that I can sweat in a snowstorm, but this winter has made a liar out of me.

Hot humid weather makes me crabby, so much so that a dear Iowa cousin once uninvited me there for our family reunion one very hot July. I’m sure it’s just a rumor that they crowned her queen of the family that year.

This winter has taken its toll on my ability to form proper sentences. Although I like to think I have a vast vocabulary, it seems the further below zero it got, my vocabulary shrunk to a few choice unprintable words.

This past week my patience was tested. My garage door likes to get off kilter a bit when it gets really cold out. As I brave the brisk air, I remind myself not to lock the keys in the car as I go to help urge my garage door in the right direction. I remind myself that I’m grateful to have a garage and a car to put in it.

As I put my car in reverse I realize the time I spent outside futzing with the garage door has let my car become almost toasty and I’m almost smiling.

Next stop is the bank to cash a check. I pull up to the drive-thru and find that every window in my car opens except for the one on the driver’s side. I wave to the teller and I make my awkward exit hoping she can’t read lips as I work my way through my list of bad words.

As I make my way to the bank door, I realize it’s not open yet and shiver as I change course to go to the walk-up. I would have had a hard time putting on my happy face — why can’t that freeze in place? — but one of the tellers had been to our murder mystery dinner theater that weekend and we had the chance to relive a few laughs.

Back out into the cold and almost to my car, I see an old friend I haven’t seen in a few months, and in spite of the cold it was fun to see him beaming over his granddaughter’s latest achievements.

It’s then that I remember this is why I moved back home. I could be cold and cranky in the big city, but I doubt I would have run into enough “happys” to balance out the “bads.”

Miriam Nelson is the editor of the Wittenberg Enterprise & Birnamwood News.