That was inspired by the time I went to visit my mother in central Florida during President’s Day week—which more or less aligns with my birthday; since one of her friends also had a birthday in mid-February, a bunch of us went out for the Valentine’s Day special at a local outdoor café—except that, since it was about 65F/18C, windy, and pouring down rain, they had to move us to a patio under a canopy.

I was wearing a sleeveless blouse, a light cotton skirt, and flip-flops—which concerned not only my mom and her friends but the waitstaff, who kept solicitously fetching me space heaters and blankets, because how could any life form with nerve endings possibly not be cold?

(From inside my skin, it was a sneak preview of spring; I’d just left much the same sort of inclement weather in Ohio—-except that the temperature was about 35F/2C!)