Day 39. "Brutal Winter and a Red Cardinal"

Today was supposed to be my big reveal on why I was up all night (see Day 37 "I'm So Tired") and also the launching off of my month of "Love."

Forget it.

Today kicked me to the curb.  We had a 16 degree below zero windchill factor as students and staff alike walked from our faraway parking lots into college today.  A student walking behind me said to her friend, "I feel like crying."  It's that brutal.  The cold is so oppressive.  I used to be a winter girl, but I'm starting to finally understand why fragile-bodied retirees flee towards the sun, their flaky, phyllo-dough skin yearning for warmth.

And why wasn't that bird flying toward the equator?  Yesterday I saw a red cardinal outside our building window, and he has been on my mind ever since.  There were several birds flitting around a bare-branched tree.  I watched the cardinal rise toward the branches and then fall back to the ground.  Was it injured?  It didn't look like it had a broken wing.  Soon it was the only bird left.  I wanted to go rescue it from the balmy 8 degree below zero windchill, but suddenly it was pecking at the ground for/at food.

I started pecking inside my brain and pulled forth 5th grade.   Cardinals don't migrate in the winter.  And, they mate for life.  Maybe this is a love story after all.  I'm still worried about that little guy, though...and myself as I start to consider where I can migrate until the spring equinox.