Compiling...

I keep saying, "It's getting cold." People look at me funny which tells me this is nothin'. So I ask, "Well then, what's cold?" The answers, oh the answers...

It's always, "This has been a mild fall" and "It's not cold yet." "Oh really?", I say, but I never get a straight answer as to what's really cold. I want to know, specifically, as in temperature. What's considered cold, what's average, and what have we gotten ourselves into?

I've started being more specific since "cold" is different to each person. Cold to Drew's bus driver is 0, as in ZERO degrees...during the day...for days! As in, one less degree than 1 and one more than negative one, WHILE THE SUN'S SUPPOSED TO BE OUT! I'd say that's COLD  (!!!!!!!!!!!) and not just cold. As in, there should be some offensive profane words, as in not just one would do, before COLD.

Saturday there was a ribbon cutting ceremony at Hutch High. I was talking to a gal and again the old stand by question came up since it was SUCH a lovely day out..."It's a lovely day out but I am bracing for the winter." I say. She says something to the affect that Kansas does not get winter, she grew up in Iowa and there's a winter. Well, count me out of Iowa...there's one less Californian they'll have to worry about! Though I am sure they don't see too many of them anyway (since I am sure most Californian's think Iowa is probably near Peru or somewhere) and if they did, they wouldn't consider them long term residents since one winter there, if they made it that long, would see them driving their hippy tree huggin',SUV drivin', sun lovin' think they know what a cold winter is asses selves back to the West Coast and not living in the middle of nowhere Peru Iowa.

"Average December, January and February temps are in the 30's", and that's mild to Andrew's teacher who's lived here her whole life. "OH GOD..." I think to myself, "...that's a high day time temp???" "Yeah,..." Drew's teacher goes on to say, "...last year it was like 10 degrees for a month straight [HIGH day time temp.] It was so cold it just made you sick when you went outside." I think, "It made you sick when you went outside??? I'm sick just contemplating the thought!" I'm so sick, in fact, that I think I'll have to go home and shove as much wood into the wood burning stove and keep it that full whilst it burns until July of next year just because it's going to take a few weeks to get it a decent temperature enough to survive and I'll need at least a month to recover...and it's only 50 degrees out right now!

So, I'm compiling a mental list of what the average winter here is like and scaring myself into thinking we're going to freeze to death! The sane part of knows we won't, well, at least I HOPE not, but good God, seriously...a blizzard in April? St. Patrick's Day in California Rachel is was wearing a sleeveless dress and the grass is was green and we have had nothing but the hot dry summer ahead! Forget about April [rain] showers bringing May flowers here, we may be looking forward to April white out conditions, shoveling snow to get out of the driveway, wearing wool socks to bed and dreaming about hot chocolate!

Oh dear, we're done for! See you next summer....maybe.