This morning, here at Critter Creek in the Great Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee, I made a cup of coffee on the Keurig and stepped outside onto the back porch of the cabin. There I found it to be 9 degrees F. -- and this was the view:
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/RichardS/Critter%20Creek%20Photographs/polarvortexjanuary292014_zps5eeee9be.jpg)
After picking up three pieces of oak firewood on the porch, I returned inside and lit a fire in the fireplace.
The next thing I did was to turn on the morning news. The news was full of the absolute disaster that the return of this damned "Polar Vortex" had wreaked on Atlanta just to the south of the Tennessee line in Georgia.
Watching the fire in the fireplace begin to take hold, I made a cup of coffee for my beautiful little wife who was still asleep in our bed and reminded myself of how perfectly wonderful retirement really can be.
May God bless and help those caught unaware by this freak of weather that has caused so much suffering across so much of our nation.