Stone Cold Truth

Sunday February 10th, 2008 - Lake Villa, IL

Another nasty blast of stone cold frozen nose sub arctic brutal polar bear weather today. It was one of those days where it was painful to be outside for even a few minutes and the kind of weather that would make anyone want to move to Honduras immediately. This is the kind of weather I remember as a kid growing up and I never liked it back then either.

But who does? There aren’t any families that I know of making the trek from San Diego to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan because they ‘dig the frosty scene’. This isn’t how we humans should be living in my opinion but that’s just me. Mother Nature seems to have a different idea. Millions of us are dealing with this right now and not one of us enjoys it.

I remember my grandmother telling me horror stories of having to use the outdoor toilet in weather like this and thinking about it today still made me shudder. It’s hard enough to sit on a cold toilet seat indoors much less having to wade through two feet of snow for the honor of hovering over a hole in an outhouse where snow drifts come through the cracks.

We really do have it amazingly good right now and I for one am thankful for it. I met up with my friend Gary Pansch for lunch today up in Racine, WI. He has coupons for food at a great truck stop up there because he works for the company. We get together once every few months to talk about life and comedy and today was the day we had planned to do it.

Yes it was cold getting to the car but after a few minutes the car warmed up and I made it to the restaurant right on time. We sat around and talked about comedy ideas and things that might sell on Uranus Factory Outlet and enjoyed a great meal. Gary is a very creative guy and an excellent comic but he chooses not to pursue it full time because of the road.

He’s not one to live the road life and not everyone can do it. His dad was a truck driver all his life and we talked about how important truckers really are. They haul all the luxury stuff we enjoy and don’t even think about like oranges from Florida and lobsters from out east and everything else that gets put on the shelves of our local stores all across America.

I don’t know why it took such a cold day to make me appreciate how much I have at my fingertips but I sure did. I have warm clothes and a car that starts and a nice INSIDE place to take a dump whenever I need to. Plus I have a HOT shower available to me at any time and I don’t take any of that for granted. Driving home I had a deep feeling of gratitude.

We all complain about life’s injustices and I am at the top of that list sometimes. I know it could be better but it sure could be a lot worse too. I bet there are a lot of unhappy mugs working in a forced labor camp in Siberia who have to suffer these horrors all the time. If I only have to do it for a little while I can shut up and deal with it. I have other stuff to do.

This week coming up is important. I don’t have any comedy gigs booked other than the Zanies new talent showcase tomorrow so I need to use the cold weather to hole up and get my indoor chores caught up. This is the time to work harder, not sit around and complain.