February 7 • 2019 5 jn I hope you came away from last week’ s Polar Vortex (PV) unscathed. Polar Vortex — sounds like some- thing your chiropractor would work on. “Say, Bob, why are you walking bent over like that?” Replies Bob, “Well gee, Sally, I strained my darn Polar Vortex again. I keep forget- ting to bend my knees when lifting things. ” I don’ t want to diminish the severity of the arrival of last week’ s PV . It was brutal and downright dangerous. As I’ m writing this (right in the middle of the PV), the temperature reading on my iPhone says it’ s minus 7 degrees with a windchill that feels like minus 29. Hard to believe because when I brought our garbage cans in a few min- utes ago I could have sworn it felt like it was only minus 10 degrees. Then again, it was a dry cold. While, obviously, the Polar Vortex contributed to a couple of newsworthy, absurdly cold days, I still get a kick out of the shock and awe we exhibit when a winter event arrives in Michigan. We so often act like we’ ve never been through this before. Every year, with- out fail, local news sends out camera crews to capture the winter season’ s first quarter-inch snowfall as if it were Armageddon. I’ m writing this in advance of know- ing how cold it ended up getting, but record wind chills we’ re predicted; minus 40 degrees by some reports. But, really, how cold was it? As Johnny Carson might say: “It was so cold it broke the record windchill that occurred during the last face-to-face meeting between President Trump and Nancy Pelosi. ” (Insert drum rim shot.) Well, it was so cold the state of Michigan experienced a government shutdown of its own last Wednesday and Thursday due to the frigid temps. So, just like our federal government, the state had to wait to reopen before con- tinuing to get nothing done. I don’ t think anyone has ever official- ly figured out what temperature would be required to have hell freeze over. We really don’ t need a specific tempera- ture. Just wait for the Lions to make it to the Super Bowl and you’ ll know. (I think worthy of another rim shot.) On second thought, we’ ll know when the Lions win their next playoff game. Most of our state’ s colleges suspended classes last Wednesday. For Michigan State, my alma mater, founded in 1855, it was only the seventh time classes had been canceled in the school’ s 164-year history. One day I hope my grandkids will gather round my rocking chair as I share the story of how Poppa Al sur- vived the third time MSU called off school and for two days no less! It was just over 41 years ago, Jan. 26-27, 1978. I was a senior at MSU, living in a house on Mac Avenue in East Lansing. My roommate, Rex Rosenhaus, was out of town and left me in charge of our third and fourth roommates — Christy, Rex’ s sweetheart of a golden retriever, and his 17-year old cat Shadow, the anti-sweetheart. Shadow wasn’ t friendly; an absolute sourpuss. How mean was she? She lived to be 27 years old just to spite every- body. But I digress. It snowed 24 inches in East Lansing over the course of those fateful two days in January. I didn’ t take one math class in five years at MSU, but I knew that 24 inches of snow was something like 2-feet deep. The Blizzard of ’ 78 caught me off guard. Lacking proper rations — pizza, pop and candy — Christy and I set off on a 2-mile roundtrip trek to the 7-11. Walking through 2 feet of snow for over two hours was in a word — stu- pid. But it allowed me to lose enough weight to justify eating all the junk food I bought. However, I learned a big lesson that day. It’ s not a good idea to take a dog that measures 23 inches high on a walk in 24 inches of snow. I’ m not sure how much weight Christy lost, but by the time we got back home, after two hours of her hopping up and down through snow drifts, she was the size of a lap- dog. And Shadow the cat? Upon my arriv- al home, she rolled her eyes and hissed at my exhausted state as to say, “What a moron. ” For a moment, I thought of taking a 5-inch tall cat for a walk in 24 inches of snow … but I realized Shadow was right. Hang in there, everybody, only 40 days until spring! But, hopefully, not like the spring of 1886. That’ s the year of the largest single day of snowfall in Detroit history: 24.5 inches on April 6, 1886. All one-room school houses were closed for the day. ■ Alan Muskovitz is a writer, voice-over/acting talent, speaker, emcee and an occasional guest host on the Mitch Albom Show on WJR AM 760. Visit his website at laughwithbigal. com and “Like” Al on Facebook. views for starters Brr! letters Alan Muskovitz Alan’ s college home during the blizzard of 1978 Israel with Sar-El I recently returned from a week in Israel on a program called “Volunteers for Is- rael” or Sar-El. This was my second year in a row on an IDF base. What a unique experience to be with 15-20 men and women from around the world, living with Israeli soldiers and airmen. Why were we there? To do non-mil- itary tasks, so that the military can focus on their essential jobs. We packed backpacks with supplies. We sorted clothing. We organized warehouses. We worked in the kitchen, and more … I have been to Israel more than 10 times, but these last two experiences with Sar-El have deepened my identity with this amazing country in a way like never before. Volunteers for Israel – USA (VFI- USA) is associated with Sar-El, an Israeli nonprofit, which administers the program.Volunteers typically spend two or three weeks living and working alongside Israelis at an army base, IDF warehouse or service base. VFI/ Sar-El Great Lakes regional directors are Carol Kent and Ed Kohl. For information, call or email Kent or Kohl at (248) 420- 3729; email michigan@vfi-usa.org or visit vfi-usa.org. — John Marx West Bloomfield My Story My Story Click. Call. Give Now. www.hfldetroit.org • 248.723.8184 Hebrew Free Loan Detroit 6735 Telegraph Road, Suite 300 • Bloomfield Hills, MI 48301 @HFLDetroit Bret Borock describes himself as someone who works hard and has an entrepreneurial spirit. “I always liked people, and I realized I wanted to be in a ‘people’ business. What makes me happy is empowering and making others happy. The ideal was to find a business that would do that, and make me want to jump out of bed to do it.” Then, as Bret and his wife were picking up their bibs at the check- in desk for a half marathon, there was information on Orangetheory Fitness. They joined, and, Bret said, “It was the best hour of my day. I wanted to be part of it.” He looked into ownership and was excited. While researching business funding options, a friend suggested Hebrew Free Loan’s . Bret put together his paperwork and applied. “I put in some of my own capital, but HFL allowed me to scale my finances efficiently, and the interest- free payments helped me plan my cash flow,” Bret said. “It worked out so well, we now have two Orangetheory studios in Ann Arbor, and one in East Lansing. Just recently we opened Reach Bodywork Studio, a one-on-one 30-minute stretching concept, and a healthy fast casual restaurant in Ann Arbor. We are extremely passionate about health and wellness, and providing lifestyle products/services to our community has been awesome.” Bret says HFL is a resource that more Michigan Jews should be using. “It’s an impactful community service. HFL believed in me, but I’m just one story. They help change the lives of others every day.” Community donations help HFL give interest-free loans to local Jews for a variety of personal, health, educational and small business needs.