Malcolm Dykes: Apple Skin

My eight-year-old continues to amaze me with her analogies and perceptions. 

Mikella is something else. 

As we darted out the door to run her to school I moaned because I had forgotten to start the car and let it warm up. 

These 30 something degrees cold mornings are not conducive to my old flesh. 

For the last few December mornings, we have had light freezes and frost which is normal for this time of the year here in southern Mississippi. 

As she and I headed out she said, "Dad you have apple skin, thin skin and is why you are cold. 

I have orange skin and it's thicker so the cold does not bother me." 

She's right. 

Her mother has a hard time getting her to wrap up or even wear a coat these frosty mornings. 

Time does that to us all. 

Turns our thick 'orange skin' into thin 'apple skin.' 

And that ain't all that changes with time, you don't have time for me to tell you all that changes with Father Time. 

These young folks have a cute saying 'age is just a number' trying to make me feel better. 

It is until you reach mine and then it turns into reality, even a horror show...ha. 

I've elk hunted in the cold of Colorado, minus 17 cold in Kansas and worked in the snow of New Jersey and the cold of Iraq and Afghanistan and none of these hurt me like Mississippi cold. 

Ours is a wet humid cold that penetrates to the bone. 

It's deer season here and some of these frosty mornings has had me sitting on a cold open-air deer stand pre-dawn waiting for the crafty elusive game to show up at daylight. 

And in so doing, even though I am wrapped up like a burrito from Taco Bell or an Eskimo in Alaska I shiver and shake. 

You can't put enough clothes on for Mississippi cold. 

My hunting friend Kendall and I text back and forth when hunting, he at another piece of property from myself and yesterday just after dawn sitting and shivering, I received his text. 

He asked if I was hunting and if so was I doing any good? 

I replied, "Yes I am hunting and turning into a human ice cube!" 

It takes me the rest of the day to get the chill out of my old bones sitting on those morning deer stands. 

Apple skin. 

Hypothermia is a real threat. 

There are people walking around minus toes and fingers and even a nose who were caught in unfortunate conditions in bitter cold and unable to free themselves of the ravages of frostbite and hypothermia. 

The coldest I ever got was duck hunting near Bastrop LA back in the early 70's and caught off guard with light clothing and an unexpected cold front coming through. 

My friend I was hunting with got stuck in his old rig trying to get us off that dirt turned mud levy that had no heater and after hours suffering from hypothermia I almost died. 

That wound up my duck hunting, I ain't been back. 

It's nothing to play around with. 

When you head out be it to shop, hunt or any other reason from here on out, be sure to wear proper clothing because we are just now getting into cold weather. 

Especially if like me, you have apple skin, LOL. 

Happy hunting and a Merry Christmas to all. 

God bless you and God bless America.