I might be chasing summers this year, but I’ve spent three winters in Vermont so I know what cold feels like. And today is it. Zero on the thermometer with a purported -18 degree windchill, as if anyone knows what that means. (And I’m talking Fahrenheit, for all you rest-of-the-world-ers.) “Will the thermometer go below zero?” my mom asks. My dad says, yes, of course it will. Implied: would he buy a wimp-ass thermometer that couldn’t go below zero? who do we think he is? Maybe we would stand around and watch it, wait for that negative sign to appear, but the tiled kitchen floor is too cold to stand on. I sit in my bed with my scarf and hat on. The dogs snuggle up so close to the woodstove that you have to wonder if they might combust. As the temperature drops, they creep closer.

In the morning, it is confirmed–the thermometer goes below zero. The dogs’ water bowl is frozen over. The inside water bowl. So what does zero degrees feel like? How about -6?

Cold. But not that much colder than 20 degrees. Not really. Not if you’re dressed right. But you can feel it in the crispness of the air. Everything is sharp–like a million tiny pin pricks on your exposed skin. Bare your teeth to the wind and they hurt. Put your tongue on the metal fence post and it’ll stick. Just like in the stories you read when you were a kid. You wouldn’t do that, but you kind of want to, because a part of you doesn’t believe that’s real, that tongues can stick to things, just because it’s cold.

The internet goes out. My dad postulates that maybe it is frozen in the pipes and my mom believes him.

Walking across our wooden deck, the boards creak, pop and crack under my weight. Although nothing breaks, the sound is like a rifle going off and I nearly jump out of my parka. The dog, let out to pee in the morning, triggers the crack and skitters across the deck, ears laid flat, convinced that someone is trying to kill her. The boards shift back into position with a groan. The air feels frenetic, alive, sharp.

I’m glad I have a plane ticket to the southern hemisphere in less than two weeks. But I’m also glad I know what this kind of cold feels like.