This is always a treacherous time of year for some when the cold comes, not to mention the stray animals out there. It is bitter here in east Tennessee, but I remember when I lived in Iowa and that bone-chilling, crippling cold would set in. I had to work in it, on telecommunications equipment. There were days when numbness was the norm, but you have to work to pay the bills.

The farmers are the true heroes. The work they do is phenomenal. However, that is not without tragedy. I had a good friend who was a farmer, good family man, owned a 400-acre corn farm. So, he's out working on the farm and goes home at sunset, and it was 5 degrees. His wife [she was kind of a standoffish bitch] told him she didn't love him anymore. He was crushed, all that he worked for was for naught, he felt broken. I called to see how he was doing and she told me "he went out." I figure he might have gone to a bar, but I didn't know which one. Still hadn't heard from him after a couple of days, then a story comes on the local news about how this guy was found sitting in his truck on a lonely road out in the country. He drove out there [lows were from 10 to 20 below for a few nights] and it turns out he just drove out to the country, parked by the side of the road, rolled down his windows and turned off the motor. He deliberately froze to death. I heard that and felt sick, and since then [that was about 30 years ago] the world just seemed a little bit darker of a place.