Sunshine?

The open-air mall is quite popular in and around Chicago. There you can walk from Macy's to Bloomingdales to the Gap not in the stagnant air of an enclosed shopping center, but instead outdoors, with the bright, warm sun beating down on your face.

Which seems reasonable considering CHICAGO IS THE COLDEST PLACE ON THE PLANET. In the spring (which lasts approximately 12 days) and the fall (19 days), walking around and shopping outdoors can be a really nice thing to do. It's the remaining 334 days in which it's either 23 degrees below zero with 9 feet of snow on the ground or 102 degrees with a 90% humidity that causes a bit of a challenge.

There were a couple of days this winter when we had to get some shopping done where we'd run from store to store, because to merely walk would surely have caused significant frostbite and a potential loss of a toe. Just as bad was this past summer when I had to have an IV hooked up to me as I walked around to ensure that I was replacing the gallons of sweat that were literally flying off my body. (It was not a pretty sight.)

But this past weekend was the first really nice weekend day of the year (and the first time it reached 70 degrees in the city in more than 6 months -- the other bits up there were exaggerations, but that info is true). While still a little brisk in the shade and a there was a strong wind off the lake, nobody seemed to mind. So it wasn't surprising that when we got to the mall on Sunday, it was full of families making their first venture outside since they woke from hibernation. There were many people underdressed in shorts and tanktops (even though the weather didn't call for them), begging and pleading for some sort of warmth to hit their skin.

I wonder if that's how we're going to be next year at this time. We'll have been holed up in the apartment from birth until thaw the following spring, pale and pasty, vitamin starved, unable to speak in anything but grunts, whistles, and primitive table pounding.

A man can dream.