Ready for battle?

The populace was in panic mode.  All the schools were closed and a nasty blast of polar air was engulfing the entire Midwest.  A perfect day for a visit to a Little Free Library – open day and night every day of the year no matter what the weather.  With a predawn temperature of 17°F below zero – add wind gusts of 20mph to make for a -39°F wind chill – I piled on all the layers I could find, grabbed my reluctant camera and headed out.

The ice and snow crunched under my boots.  The moisture from my breath immediately began to freeze to my eyebrows and lashes.   Walking into the wind was amazingly and indescribably cold.  But I kept on moving, gesturing neighborly to some unrecognizably bundled biped out walking his miserable ten pound lap dog.  Fortunately, the closest LFL is only about a half mile away, standing patiently in somebody’s front yard, across the street from the local park.

Cold books. Really cold.

Fumbling with my big mittens, I opened the library and spotted a reasonable selection, including novels by PD James and Lee Child, as well as some children’s books about Cheerios and chicken pox.  I hurriedly grabbed a paperback copy of House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III, left behind a copy of Tree: A Life Story by David Suzuki and Wayne Grady, snapped one picture and stuffed my completely frozen right hand back into my cold mitten.

After a hasty scamper back home, I wiped the ice off my face, defrosted my chilled hands, jumped under all the blankets I could find and spent the rest of the day with good books.  Any day’s a great day for a visit to a Little Free Library, even if it requires long underwear, four jackets and a pair of really big mittens.

photos by the author