Polar Opposite....

Unless you've been living under a rock you've no doubt heard about the Polar Vortex that has the middle of the country (which is exactly where we live) in a record making deep freeze. If  for some reason you've actually  been living under a rock,  you might want to hook up with Benito Hermandez since he's somewhat of an authority on the subject, having spent the last 30+ years with his family under one  49 miles south of the Texas border:



 Benito Hernandez, of Coahulla, Mexico, his wife and their seven children have been living under a 130-foot-diameter rock for more than 30 years. The rock acts as the roof of their sun-dried-brick home, located in the remote desert town of San Jose de Piedras, about 50 miles from the Texas border.

But that's not what this post is about. No, this is about the Polar Vortex that we're experiencing now. I've got to hand it to the weather forecasters, cause they nailed this one. They were calling for 8-12 inches of snow today here in Indiana. We got 11.  That was on top of the 7 we got a couple days ago.  Next  they called for temperature to drop from 31 degrees, which it has been hovering at all day long, to -14 degrees later tonight. That's a 45 degree swing in less than 12 hours, crazy. Those negative temperatures are to be accompanied by 25 mph sustained winds with up to 40 mph gusts.

So you wonder why we like to spend a month in the Caribbean?

 Knowing what was coming at us,  Lorrie wanted to take a walk over to the cabin to check on  things  and to get a look at all the snow before artic blast hit. I had already spent much of the day outside looking at the snow on the end of a shovel, but  the thought of  a walk through the woods sounded nice . It was eerily quiet walking over there. The falling snow muffles most all the sound and creates a surreal environment.

no sky
no land -- just
snow falling

KAJIWARA Hashin


As it was we got into the cabin just minutes before the winds hit.



As I'm typing this  morning the temperature outside is -12 degrees and the winds are howling. Looking outside I  see the most beautiful sun dog.

This is the exact polar opposite of what it'll be like in  less than 4 weeks when we're back on Vieques  and we'll be  the "sun dawgs".  I'm sure this Polar Vortex  will  make us appreciate those warm winter trades even more.  We'll be unveiling a new and improved (at least we hope so) cabana design this trip.



:-)