The Cold and Little House on the Prairie

It’s cold today. Really cold. The coldest it’s been so far this season. Of course everyone is in freak out mode and it will be the only thing discussed at coffee makers and in elevators around the state. A chorus of “cold enough for ya” will be heard echoing off the snow banks as people wait for buses or to cross intersections. These sort of things make me very stabby. Small talk makes my skin crawl. And this weather brings all of that out. We live in Minnesota. It’s cold. It is the third week of January and it gets this cold every third week of January. It is no surprise. Yes, it is normal to complain about it. I complain about it, too. But let’s not act so surprised.

I started up my Little House on the Prairie season 1 DVDs last week and they have been quite enjoyable. That show is my childhood. I’ve seen every episode countless times and can usually tell which episode it is within the first 30 seconds of the first scene. It’s great to watch it without commercials. It’s odd how when you watch it on TV, as I have been for over 25 years, that it is the same commercials every time. Bankruptcy lawyers, medication for the elderly, electric tomato slicers, any number of “as seen on TV” products. Now I can watch it commercial free. And it still takes about 50 minutes to watch. Shows were so long back in the day.

Winter season is fast approaching on Little House. Knowing the show was filmed in California and that Michael Landon probably never stepped foot in Minnesota in the middle of January, it’s sometimes laughable how flippantly they treat the weather. But it does make me think about the real Ingalls and how the hell they survived living here on a day like today. A little log cabin with only a fire place and a thin comforter to keep them warm. Riding in wagons with the bitter wind whipping in their faces. Women forced to wear dresses while the freezing wind and snow blows up their skirts. How did they do it? I can’t handle getting a warm car ride into work and having to stand outside waiting to cross the street from where I was dropped off to get inside the heated building I work in.

I can barely handle being inside. I’m still shivering.

They should really turn up the heat in here.