Winters in Beloit
A lot of people don't believe me when I tell them how much the winters in Beloit really suck. They are really grueling and annoying and bitter and frustrating. They make people want to give up. They make people not think clearly. They make people depressed. Honestly, it's very depressing. I mean, it's not like the arctic, or the antarctic for that matter, but it is quite depressing.
When that first snowfall comes in late fall and it's just starting to get cold and you walk outside with a coat and gloves on and you can see your breath, it's beautiful. It's kind of a release from all the things that were going on in your life, like college, when you can just take in the beauty of the earth. It doesn't matter where you are, in a dorm, out in the quad, on the street, because that first snowfall is so pretty and so pure and wherever you are, you find a way to recognize it as beautiful and want it to last forever.
Eventually, though, it stops snowing, and you've got to get on with your life. That's when it starts getting depressing because that same snow will stay there for the rest of the winter, and it will just get colder and colder. It gets to a point where it won't snow any more for the rest of the winter, it won't precipitate at all, it will just get cold, bitterly cold.
It gets so cold and windy, piercingly cold.
So (I'm going to swear here) "fucking" cold.
So cold that you can't describe it any more than "fucking" cold because your are so mad at the cold that you wish you could just insult it and it would start being warmer.
But it doesn't. It stays cold. Cold that when you're walking to class or wherever and you've got your coat and hat and gloves on and maybe even a scarf, and you've got your arms crossed and you're walking fast because you're so frustrated and you just look down and keep walking, not saying hi or even noticing anybody, and every once in a while, you'll glance over to the snow, and it'll remind you of the cold, and you'll just think to yourself, "Why does it have to be so fucking cold out here?!"
I think that's a pretty accurate description of how people feel when they walk around Beloit in the winter. Of course what makes it additionally depressing is that it is almost always cloudy. Every once in a while, the sun will come out and produce a warmth for the afternoon, but then at night everything will freeze again, and the next day it will be cold and depressing again.
That makes it worse because now you have to traverse across ice, which is terribly frustrating. You really lose a lot of ground when it comes to ice, in more ways than one. First, you lose ground literally by not actually having ground any more. The ground is now covered in ice, and you can't even see the ground any more. Secondly, you lose ground when you are walking across ice because every other step you take you just slip and take another step to counteract falling over. So you end up taking twice as many steps as you would normally have to and covering about twice as much ground when walking across ice.
In Beloit, they have ways to combat the ice. They call it salt, and they put it on everything, and I mean everything. I would describe Beloit in the winter as a big frozen pretzel that you can walk around and take classes in. You end up getting hoardes of salt on your shoes, which has severe health and hygiene benefits for your dorm room. So, to make a point, winters in Beloit pretty much suck, except that you get to go through them with people that you like, which is alright.
But let me tell you, after my fourth winter here, my spring break could not have come soon enough. I flew to sunny and warm Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, where it was warm. Did I mention it was warm there? Well, that got be thinking about summer, because there is no season that I enjoy more than summer. I enjoy being able to go out without a coat, in shorts even. I love wearing shorts. They are more comfortable than pants anyway, and I'll be honest, I'm a big fan of my legs.
The heat is way more fun to be around in. If it gets really hot and humid, it really only gets uncomfortable. If it gets really cold, it gets bitter and sometimes painful. I think that heat beats cold any day. So if you are like me, and you like warm weather better than cold, and you like looking at legs, then I say to you keep your heads up, because the warm weather is right around the corner. But not until one last cold, though.
Usually after spring break, it will get warm, and then it will suddenly get really cold for about a week before it finally stays warm. It's God's way of letting you know you're still in Wisconsin, like he's got some kind of grudge on you for going to Beloit. I don't understand it. Warmer and sunnier days are coming though, and then I'll have to put up with all the frisbee players that have been dormant for the last three months.
When that first snowfall comes in late fall and it's just starting to get cold and you walk outside with a coat and gloves on and you can see your breath, it's beautiful. It's kind of a release from all the things that were going on in your life, like college, when you can just take in the beauty of the earth. It doesn't matter where you are, in a dorm, out in the quad, on the street, because that first snowfall is so pretty and so pure and wherever you are, you find a way to recognize it as beautiful and want it to last forever.
Eventually, though, it stops snowing, and you've got to get on with your life. That's when it starts getting depressing because that same snow will stay there for the rest of the winter, and it will just get colder and colder. It gets to a point where it won't snow any more for the rest of the winter, it won't precipitate at all, it will just get cold, bitterly cold.
It gets so cold and windy, piercingly cold.
So (I'm going to swear here) "fucking" cold.
So cold that you can't describe it any more than "fucking" cold because your are so mad at the cold that you wish you could just insult it and it would start being warmer.
But it doesn't. It stays cold. Cold that when you're walking to class or wherever and you've got your coat and hat and gloves on and maybe even a scarf, and you've got your arms crossed and you're walking fast because you're so frustrated and you just look down and keep walking, not saying hi or even noticing anybody, and every once in a while, you'll glance over to the snow, and it'll remind you of the cold, and you'll just think to yourself, "Why does it have to be so fucking cold out here?!"
I think that's a pretty accurate description of how people feel when they walk around Beloit in the winter. Of course what makes it additionally depressing is that it is almost always cloudy. Every once in a while, the sun will come out and produce a warmth for the afternoon, but then at night everything will freeze again, and the next day it will be cold and depressing again.
That makes it worse because now you have to traverse across ice, which is terribly frustrating. You really lose a lot of ground when it comes to ice, in more ways than one. First, you lose ground literally by not actually having ground any more. The ground is now covered in ice, and you can't even see the ground any more. Secondly, you lose ground when you are walking across ice because every other step you take you just slip and take another step to counteract falling over. So you end up taking twice as many steps as you would normally have to and covering about twice as much ground when walking across ice.
In Beloit, they have ways to combat the ice. They call it salt, and they put it on everything, and I mean everything. I would describe Beloit in the winter as a big frozen pretzel that you can walk around and take classes in. You end up getting hoardes of salt on your shoes, which has severe health and hygiene benefits for your dorm room. So, to make a point, winters in Beloit pretty much suck, except that you get to go through them with people that you like, which is alright.
But let me tell you, after my fourth winter here, my spring break could not have come soon enough. I flew to sunny and warm Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, where it was warm. Did I mention it was warm there? Well, that got be thinking about summer, because there is no season that I enjoy more than summer. I enjoy being able to go out without a coat, in shorts even. I love wearing shorts. They are more comfortable than pants anyway, and I'll be honest, I'm a big fan of my legs.
The heat is way more fun to be around in. If it gets really hot and humid, it really only gets uncomfortable. If it gets really cold, it gets bitter and sometimes painful. I think that heat beats cold any day. So if you are like me, and you like warm weather better than cold, and you like looking at legs, then I say to you keep your heads up, because the warm weather is right around the corner. But not until one last cold, though.
Usually after spring break, it will get warm, and then it will suddenly get really cold for about a week before it finally stays warm. It's God's way of letting you know you're still in Wisconsin, like he's got some kind of grudge on you for going to Beloit. I don't understand it. Warmer and sunnier days are coming though, and then I'll have to put up with all the frisbee players that have been dormant for the last three months.
posted by Leland J. Fischer at 1:40 AM
