Today was my first day back at work after a few well deserved days off during the week of New Year’s, but could we have just a regular first Monday back…? Hell no! It’s got to be some -22 wind chill, no snow on the ground, all the schools out, but grownups got to go to work kind of Monday.

So much for easing back into the work routine. I guess ripping the band-aid off in sub-zero temps is one way go. It does make you think a bit less about what the work day might entail and consider surviving the commute across town, just in case my car decided to keel over.

I was up early this morning to catch some news and check on closings, and I see this vortex thing has pushed a spike of arctic chill from N. Dakota all the way down to Hotlanta. It created a 140 degree difference in temperatures within the continental U.S., between the -55 degrees in N. Dakota and the 85 degrees in S. Florida.

That is insane.

It was like 5 degrees in Frankfort this morning, with a -20 wind chill factor. That’s a 50 degree temperature drop from yesterday here. I know it could be worse. I used to live in Iowa. They had double-digit negative temps all of today; Chicago set a record low of -16; and in Minneapolis, it’s -17, but feels like -40.

That’s why I didn’t move there.

Still, I’m sitting here watching Auburn play Florida State for the national championship in balmy Pasadena, and it’s -3 out my window.

A new snow has fallen and it feels like it’s -22.

That’s a lot more like Iowa than Kentucky.

It’s all good. Monday is over. I got my work swerve back, and I’m keeping a constant 75 degrees in front of this space heater.

War Eagle!