It’s cold outside and freezing across much of America.

People are wrapping themselves up—bundling, binding, layering—in Minnesota the police put on seven toppings to beat off the death-rattling chill.

Today central Floridians woke to about thirty six degrees, just above freezing, so can we complain?

Of course we can.

We complain about everything else.

Here some of the comments I heard.

“We had to run the heat for three days in a row, and this cold snap might last all week.”

“Took in all my plants in from the porch, and my kitchen looks like the Appalachian Trail, and that’s including Governor Sanford from South Carolina wandering the paths searching for his mistress from Argentina.”

“The dog’s cold, and I don’t even own a dog.”

And of course I agree. Why should we get the frost? Didn’t we guys make the conscious decision when we moved down to Florida to escape the tundralike temperatures for unforgiving heat and humidity?

Years ago the people on this peninsula announced that they'd choose outsized T-shirts, droopy shorts, and frizzy hair gnarled tighter than the Simpsons’ coiffures at a family reunion rather than subject ourselves to refreshing breezes that allow those high cost, blown dried, scissor-cut dos of the average well enhanced movie star.

We chose sweat over good looks, so enough of the plunging thermometers.

But then again…

I found this neat winter jacket and these leather fur lined boots. Then I saw cashmere sweaters at 75% off. Seventy-five?

That’s two hundred bucks for like fifty.

I couldn’t just turn and walk away.

I stood staring at the cardigans and pullovers. Surely one day it will be cold and nasty, and cashmere will be the only thinkable choice.

But there was merino wool on sale behind me, cotton knit to the left, cotton silk to the right.

What was a thinking woman to do?

Only one natural choice.

I built a few more drawers and shelves in my daughter’s closet—okay they were floor to ceiling. (She left years ago. It was only dead space.)

And this morning—look what happened—I woke up, and it was almost freezing!

So I had a few sweaters at the ready.

And I thank the lord that I had made enough room.