The match took place early this morning. In the blue corner, Polar Vortex #4, the more powerful of the two, wily and windy and packin’ a one-two punch that could knock your socks off in a heartbeat. In the white corner, Snow Squall weighed in, short in stature but with ice crystals aplenty that could sting like a bee and smack you silly with an icy-cold grip. Both were this morning’s Winter contenders, equally potent, and here for the umpteenth re-match of the season. This scenario played in my head this morning while I tapped my toe as I waited for the noxious fumes from the car to clear out of the garage so I could quickly disappear back into the house. I peered down the street, marveling at the neighbor’s over-sized Christmas bulbs swinging merrily on an ornamental tree in their front yard. Surely, those ornaments must be wired to the branches after all the wacky weather we’ve sustained since nigh on in November. I looked up when I heard a pair of angry blue jays cackling at me … no warbling songbirds were they as they bent down and looked at me from their high perch. “Hey, don’t blame me for this” I told them … “believe me, I share your pain” … with a turn of my heel I closed the garage and trod back to the house, meeting up with a fractious squirrel along the way. We eyeballed each other and he jumped down when I had nothing but commiseration about the weather to offer him, thus ending any potential tête-à-tête and signaling the end of my petite excursion. Winter weary are we, and the referee says we are all down for the count as we prepare to finally exit February tomorrow.