I have dogs. I have work. Sometimes the WideEyedHousehold needs staples like groceries or wine.

There’s no choice for me, no opt out, no polite refusal. I have to go outside into the Winter at least three time a day. Miss Tibbit the Useless prefers fewer times in truly foul conditions. Hamish the Corgi goes out there whenever I go, climate is secondary to boon companionship.

Two tools allow me to filter out the Winter.

1. Joan of Arctic wool lined, faux-furry, Sorel rubber boots. I wear them with my suits, squeeze them on over my ancient magic-dissertation-writing sweatpants, tuck my jeans down in. I CAN’T FEEL THE COLD IN THEM. Knees down, I’m inside, next to a roaring fire.

2. Kate Spade gigantic sunglasses. I poke those architectural specs onto my nose during howling snow storms, for days of hazy winter twilight at noon, and in those rare-for-Buffalo sun-glared snow conditions. The lenses are so big, cover so much of my face…everything on the far side of the Kate Spades is artificial, none of it is real out there. Things exist only if I decide they do. Everything is better when I’m in the Kate Spades.

That’s it. The Winter is absurd. It won’t stop. Get yourself some quality filters and occupy a warm, gloaming place of your own making.