Savannah Cold
Interesting variation on my morning…to me. My awakening came at 6:30 a couple of hours ahead of schedule because the thermostat kept cutting the heat on and waking me. Usually we sleep in a heatless house, preferring the warmth of bedcovers to that of fossil fuel. Apparently we didn’t cut the heat off, merely pushed the thermostat down so it was able announce the approaching cold front. Clever how thermostats work…even in Savannah.
I begin my days with a walk in Savannah. Usually I chose the Ardsley Park mall (with a small m meaning not a commercial Mall but a tree lined walkway) in Savannah’s mid-town Ardsley Park neighborhood. Ardsley Park is the antithesis of Levittown’s cracker box development. It’s a 1920s vintage neighborhood. Today that area was being cleansed of downed palm fronds, Spanish moss clumps, sycamore (more accurately sweet gum) balls and varied leaves still falling from Savannah’s gentle climate. The city workers were armed with leaf blowers to add to nature’s breeze.
I went to bed with a scratchy throat so the threat of their loud noise and stirred pollen was unappealing to me. Instead I sought another spot. Unpleasant weather usually drives me to the shopping Mall named for our founder, Oglethorpe (who never knew the concept of a cluster of indoor stores). Since I wasn’t sure my scratchy throat wasn’t the result of shopping where a store clerk was repeatedly demonstrating the symptoms for which Whooping Cough derived it’s name, I opted for an outdoor walk. I’ve begun weaving an oriental style rug so my nose constantly in the dyed wool may have played some role in the condition of my throat. I thought these mental cautions a sign of my age and pictured Howard Hughes beginning his decline this way.
In the early hour the Mall’s parking lot was still abandoned and its expanse of asphalt looked alluringly pollen free and preferable to crowded indoor stale air (Our Malls open their doors earlier than their stores to accommodate walkers). I withdrew my gloveless hands into the cuffs of my ski jacket, turned up its collar and circled the perimeter twice. Here the unobstructed breeze became a stiff wind and the predicted cold front it ushered in gave me my first feeling of bitter cold this winter. Savannah’s had two killing frosts this winter but they didn’t really seem as cold as this one.
Not very picturesque but invigorating and it woke me up all over again.