I woke up on Sunday and something had changed in our world, or at least in Warwick. It was an insidious thing, cold and calculating. Wiping the frost off of the window, I peered out at the street. Things looked the same. The cute, yellow house across the street still sat quiet, as did the gray house next door with the new neighbors it in. No sign of frantic people who were also aware of the change. The leafless trees, the frigid, dead grass, and the stray dead leaves were all still, no movement in sight. The neighbors to my right had even re-decorated their house over the weekend and left a pile of children's furniture to be picked up on Heavy Trash Day. No outward sign of the change that had happened.

I turned my attention to our picture window on the other side of the house. The pile of wood sat innocently in the fire pit, as did our patio furniture. As they were uncovered, I had expected a reaction of some sort (although I know that a patio chair cannot shiver). There was a thin layer of ice on the pond, an invitation for the dog to jump on, but even she is not that dumb. A few struggling seagulls floated in the frigid water, their feathers shielding them from the air, but they no doubt had cold feet as the appendages were exposed. From all appearances, there was no overt reaction to the monumental event that had happened.

Quickly dressing and donning my winter coat and gloves, I made a face of disgust as my hat was plopped on my head, flattening my beautiful, poufy curls. (That is a lie...only in my dreams do I have beautiful, poufy curls.) Nonetheless, what had been a hairdo was now flat and would be electrified like Albert Einstein's hair once the hat came off.

I dashed through the foreign air from my front door to the car and plopped myself down onto the icy driver's seat. By the time the heated seat was heated, it was thawing off my frozen butt. Driving to church was surprisingly uneventful. No haphazard drivers, no elderly monopolizing the middle lane, and some people had thrown caution to the wind and were even driving over the 35-mile-an-hour speed limit.

The only aberrant behavior witnessed was the fact that car after car drove right through the crosswalk, stranding walkers trying to cross the street, along with the fact that the car behind me laid on its horn because I did stop for them. (Not so much aberrant behavior as typical behavior for distracted motorists who continually ignore the law that they are supposed to stop for people in marked crosswalks.)

When arriving at church, I expected to see the building empty with most of the revelers staying home on this unusual day, but almost everyone was there. They seemed nonplussed by the change of events on this new and almost frightening day. Things had changed and they were not worried. They acted almost Normal.

It must have been only me who reacted with trepidation and panic on this Sunday, the first day of the year when the temperature was below zero. Yes, the first day to actually herald that the concept that winter was not a myth and had not been obliterated by global warming. Ah, yes, I remember now. It gets cold in the winter.