It's all a matter of perspective

I'm sure if I lived in Minnesota or Pennsylvania or somewhere in New England I would be sick of winter too, and would be giddy thinking about all the things I was going to do outside once it got warmer.

But I don't. I live in Texas (which all things considered is a pretty good place to live).  Yesterday it hit 82 degrees here, and I broke a sweat.  Just thinking about what's to come debilitates me.

I'm Soooooo over summer.

What's that?  It's just now Spring?  Summer won't even arrive for three more months?  DOH!

Maybe I need a motor home so I can just keep moving along, chasing cool comfortable weather wherever it goes.  I suppose it's just my inner Don Quixote tilting at windmills again.

S

Calendars lie

Calendars lie.  At least those in Texas do.  From childhood stories up through Saturday Evening Post covers (anyone reading this old enough to remember the Saturday Evening Post?) to today's NFL halftime beer commercials, we're taught fall means sweaters, fires in the fireplace complete with smoldering marshmallows and Smores, colorful foliage, and lots of leaves that need raking.  

And it's fall now, right?  It arrived September 20-something-or-other as I recall, same as it does every year.  Except we here in Texas usually have none of those things yet.  Sweaters are still safely tucked away in storage boxes, the fireplace is still dark and cold,  marshmallows and Smores ingredients are still on the store shelves, and leaves are still green and holding on tightly.  

Damn!

But....and here comes the good part....this year so far seems to be different.  Dallas on the first day of fall saw rain and a cool front move through.  For the past week the high temps have been in the 80's, and yesterday round two came through.  More rain, more cool, enough that I had to dig around and find a sweater in order to sit outside yesterday evening.  Pinch me!

The cherry on top of this autumn Sunday (sundae....get it?) morning was the flock of geese that greeted me as I walked out onto my terrace this morning.  While directionally challenged (they were heading west), they still maintained their perfect V-formation and were happily honking the whole way.  

As I'm now on the third floor they were right at eye level and so close I think I could  have reached out and touched them. Or more accurately, reached out and had them viciously attack me for such an aggressive move.  (Mean little bastards they are!)

All this leads me to mentally ratchet up my expectations for a REAL winter, complete with snow and....oh, what the hell....smoldering marshmallows on sticks and Smores.

Fingers crossed.  :)

S

Tell me again why I should be sad about summer's passing?

Well, here it is the first day of September, the first day of the month many people equate with fall.  In many places trees are turning vibrant colors, a few leaves will already be falling (is that where the term "fall" comes from?), and being outside actually becomes pleasant again.

But I'm in Texas, and to a Texan September just means more of the same.  Today's high temperature is forecast to be 103.  I've been reading blogs and Facebook posts where the authors are lamenting the passing of summer.  I say "bring it".  Good riddance.  I long to be able to go outside for a few hours and NOT come back dripping wet, sticky, and smelly.

I always get a chuckle watching TV commercials during football games this time of year where the Budweiser  Clydesdale's are pulling their wagon through scenery that looks something like this:

*Sigh*

It will be at least another 6 weeks, maybe longer, before I'll see anything like that around here.  When it finally does find us it will be intense, but brief.  One morning we'll just wake up to find one giant leaf dump, and that's it.  Hello winter.

But even that isn't so bad, at least here in Texas.  Jeans and a light jacket will usually suffice.  Shovel snow?  I've heard Yankees complain of it, but never understood the point of shoveling the meager 4" of snow that might collect on my sidewalk after the "epic storm" our weatherguessers had been warning us about for a week finally arrives.  And besides, in 3 days it will be back in the 60's (70's?) and the snow will take care of itself.  Shovel snow?  Pfffftttttt.

But all that is months away.  On this September 1st I'll just spend my time mostly indoors, the air conditioning running full blast, sipping my iced beverage, dreading my trips outside with the dog, wondering why he can't just "hold it" until fall.  :)

Stay cool friends.

S

Careful what you pray for

I think I've figured out why the weather this summer is so hot:  During last winter's never-ending blizzard all you Yankees got down on your knees at the same time and said, "Dear God, PLEEEEEEEZE make this snow stop and give us some heat."  And hearing it from all sides He said, "OK, done."  Uh Huh....that was it.

There are some things that you can just count on.  Every spring the grass greens up and the trees bloom.  The track of the sun moves a little closer to the equator, and the temperature gets warmer miserably hot.  And I write a blog post bitching about the grass getting greener and needing mowing, the trees blooming and making me sneeze, and the sun track moving toward the equator making it miserably hot. 

Summertime as a school-age kid was fun, for obvious reason....school was out for 3 months.  WooHoo!  Even tempered by the fact that I was charged with mowing our lawn, summer was still a fun time.  

Now as an adult, however, I see absolutely NO redeeming social value whatsoever to summer.  Working/playing outside in the summer makes us HOT.  When we get hot we SWEAT.  When we sweat we STINK.  So basically we just walk around STINKING up the place for 3 months.  Why would anyone want to do that?  I'm pretty sure "summer" is an old Indian word for "stink".  

The only excuse I can figure for there even being a summer at all is because God must have wanted to make it up to you Yankees for sticking you way up north like that with all those blizzards.  "Oops, sorry guys.  To make it up to you I'll give you a few months of warmth, OK?  We good?"  But then He realized that was burning all us southerners to a crisp, so He gave us air conditioning....and ice cream with fresh strawberries on top. ;) 

*Sigh*  Oh well, I guess it's all part of The Plan.  Enjoy your Saturday, and stay cool.

S

Some day his "Wanted" poster will be on the Post Office bulletin board

ATTITUDE

Something Luke Park has in abundance.

Lemme tell you what K's dog did earlier today:  This morning K took him on a long walk, and as there was a lot of dew on the grass he came back wet.  He was dirty anyway so K decided to just give him a bath.  Apparently he didn't want a bath.  

After she towel-dried him off a bit she went into the kitchen to fix his breakfast.  While she was at the sink washing out his bowl he pee'd on the floor right behind where she was standing!  Sure enough she took a small step back right into his puddle.  He got his revenge.  No telling what the 'lil bastard would have done if he'd had thumbs.  :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It looks like winter might finally make an appearance in North Texas.  A cold front is expected later this evening, dropping temps into the 20's with the high tomorrow only in the 30's. They're even saying we might have some snow flurries.  I'm sure I'll turn on the local news tomorrow morning to find "Team Coverage" of this "major" weather event.

"And in other news, California slides off into the Pacific and Vladimir Putin comes out of the closet, but now back to Brent in downtown Dallas where several snowflakes have reportedly been seen."

Now where'd I put that coat?

S

Winter arrives this evening at 6....

....and will be gone by noon tomorrow. I'm not joking.  That's likely to be all the winter we have this year in Dallas.  By tonight it will begin to rain, sleet, and snow.  No accumulation is expected, however, as the temp overnight isn't expected to drop below freezing.  High tomorrow, 47.  Mid 60's by Wednesday.  Now my concern is if it's this warm during the "winter", how hot is it going to be during the "summer"?

Here's my plan:  Y'all stop driving.  Ride bikes or skateboards instead.  And start giving all the cows Bean-O.  Between you people driving and the cows farting you're screwing up the atmosphere.  Is a couple inches of snow and maybe a few pitiful snowmen too much to ask for?  I WANT MY WINTER BACK, DAMMIT!

S

Do I dare hope?

This is getting serious.  I'm talking about our drought.  There was a big meeting in Austin recently attended by planners where they were told our drought will most likely extend well into next year.  The consensus was that we would have a warmer and dryer winter than normal.  I hate, hate, hate hearing this as I'm like a little kid who looks forward every fall to the possibility that we'll soon have some cold and snow.  


By December I'm ready.  Chili makin's are in the pantry, I've got my assortment of winter coats all ready and lined up, and the same for my shoes/boots.  By January, if things are still whiteless, I start getting nervous.  By February if we haven't had any snow I start to get down.  We've most probably missed it.  Understand I'm not talking about snow that can be measured in feet, but just 6 inches or so.  Just enough to miss a day or two of school work, make some poor dwarf snowman, maybe throw a snowball or two.


Right now I'm pinning my hopes on the Farmers Almanac which predicts a warmer but wetter winter than normal.  I wonder who's more accurate, a group of highly trained meteorologists or some fuzzy little creature's nose twitch that the Farmers Almanac folks swear by?  


S