Minus how many?

Back in May of 2007, when this whole thing started, I visited my family in Denver. It was the first time I was in the US during the spring since I left for Australia, and everything was startling - all the flowers, the green of the new grass and the new leaves on the trees. My parents picked me up at the airport and we went to my sister's place, and I distinctly remember getting out of the car and walking to her front door with no coat on, distinctly remember it because it was the coldest I had been in memory. I found out it was 53 degrees. "Fifty-three!" I cried out. "That's not enough degrees!"

My sister still laughs hysterically at this when she remembers it.

I still stand by what I said that May, fifty-three is not enough degrees. But also, folks lemme tell you, four is also not enough degrees. Not nearly enough degrees at all. It was the number of degrees displaying this evening on both a bank sign and the sign out front of the Walgreens. By the time I got home, in my car, with the heat on full blast, I couldn't feel the tips of my fingers.

And right now it's four below, so not only do I not have enough degrees, I'm in the hole a few, and the universe owes them to me. Negative four, four degrees owed to me, is how cold it is now.