With no apologies to those who still believe the Earth is going through a period of warming, you’re misguided.

If you or your family has not been touched in some negative way by our current arctic cold wave, consider yourself fortunate. Many folks in our area lost power, found that they had burst pipes, or found their cars with dead batteries or burst hoses. So far, we are fortunate that this has been the worst of our issues.

Tuesday, local schools were closed. For those of us raised in an era when we walked miles to school in blinding snowstorms and wicked heat, this seemed at first to be a "wimp-out.’’ But clearer thinking revealed this was a wise decision.

Weather and medical experts had been warning us not to get out in this cold without being properly bundled up. Many children simply do not have the proper clothing for such extreme cold, so waiting outside for transportation could have been seriously dangerous for them.

Plus, heating the schools enough to keep students comfortable would have put an additional strain on the already-stretched power grid.

There was also the possibility of school buses breaking down and leaving children stranded.

One more day off was not going to hurt our children’s progress; the medical problems that could have resulted from the cold, however, might have.

Think positively. They tell us that this weekend will be a balmy 65 degrees.