Where Am I?

It's three-degrees outside.

Three.

Now come on that's just not fair! Where am I? Did I wake up in Alaska?

The bear paw slippers are out and I'm dressing in multiple layers. The chances that you'll see me poke myself out of the house today are zero to none. The weather dudes and dudettes are calling for a high of 17-degrees today.

The sun did rise early and bright this morning. We've had a lot of gray skies this winter so far. But this morning the sky is perfectly blue. From the back of the house we watched as a jet tore a perfect white streak through the blue. The air is so cold it looked as if the jet was lighting the sky on fire as it passed.

My body is just not made for this stuff. My hands are all dried and cracked. My sinuses dry out from the furnace too. If I didn't put Chap-Stik on my lips every two-hours I'm convinced both my lips would just crack into pieces and fall on the floor.

Everybody is from somewhere, and I'm obviously not originally from here. I've always found it amazing how we're all built to be somewhere. Not that we may much attention to that. But Eskimos are born with certain natural instincts and defenses, just as natives are on a Polynesian island. Switch those two around geographically and there might be some trouble. Everybody is meant to be somewhere.

I'm Irish and German so I think this body belongs in a calm maritime environment that doesn't get too hot or too cold. At least that's my story, and I'm sticking with it.

I'll never forget when I was in Ireland as a youngster. One day the temperature hit a scorching 75-degrees and all the Irish took the day off and sat out in their backyards complaining about how warm it was.

It's all a matter of perspective.

One thing that I've always found incredible is how insects, reptiles, fish and animals get larger the closer you get to the equator, meanwhile people get smaller the closer you get to the equator. In Columbia they have pygmy tribes the height of my waist, and centipedes the size of my forearm.

This blue marble we call home is fascinating. I'm not sure how much we pay attention to it. Sometimes I think we think it's here for us, when it might be the other way around.

Environmentalists, I must admit, do crack me up. I laugh simply because I think it's funny that an individual would feel empowered enough to save a planet. Trust me on this one, if the Earth gets sick of us, it will kick us off. Don't worry about saving the planet, concentrating on saving yourself. The planet will take care of itself.