About a week or so ago I had my first opportunity to take my little fitness walk while it was snowing. It was just flurries really, nothing sticking on the ground. About 9:00 AM my weather page said it was 26 degrees F but "Feels Like" 12 degrees F with the wind chill factor. I waited an hour and went out about 10:00 AM. My weather page said it was still 26 degrees F but the wind chill had slacked off and it only "Felt Like" 13 degrees F, so I headed out. I can handle 13 but 12 degrees F is just too damn cold. The temperatures have been all over the place of late. Two days ago I did my walk and it was 34 (feels like 20) degrees F, and last night Maureen and I went out for drinks and it was in the middle 50s after dark when we took off from the house. This morning I woke up and it was drizzling and a gorgeous 67 outside. I opened up all the windows in the house, got my coffee and tablet, and went outside to read on the porch with Buddy it was so nice. About an hour later I could swear it was getting colder. I checked my faithful weather page again and it was 57. Could I have been mistaken earlier? So I checked the hourly feature and sure enough, the prediction indicated that it will be cooling off all day and be just above freezing at 1:00 PM, typically the warmest part of the day. How cruel is that? I was having visions of short sleeve shirts and a drink on the patio somewhere this evening. The old adage; "If you don't like the weather around here wait a minute and it will change!" certainly seems to be true this year. Even Buddy is feeling the cold this winter!
A couple of people have asked how we did with the fires. We are north of Asheville and the fires were mostly south and the wind rarely blew smoke in our direction. Liam had more trouble at his school. WCU is southwest and some of the fires were in the vicinity for him. The distance runners had to practice in-doors for most of that period.
We will be spending Christmas in Cleveland this year (any criminals reading this, the house is alarmed and our neighbors know we're gone and are watching our house). After watching the weather predictions for Ohio I went out and bought snow chains for all four tires of my truck. I can still hear my dad saying; "You always put chains on the front and rear wheels because you don't want your rear wheels pushing you where you don't want to go." Truck tire chains are expensive but I operate on my "umbrella theory." If you carry an umbrella with you all the time it never rains. "Luck favors the prepared" and I have tire chains in the truck for all four wheels so we should have clear sailing up and back. Just the same, we are driving west to Tennessee and then north to bypass the mountains on this trip. It adds 50 miles and about an hour to the drive but my umbrella theory is just a theory and there's no point in taking unnecessary chances.
We will be spending Christmas in Cleveland this year (any criminals reading this, the house is alarmed and our neighbors know we're gone and are watching our house). After watching the weather predictions for Ohio I went out and bought snow chains for all four tires of my truck. I can still hear my dad saying; "You always put chains on the front and rear wheels because you don't want your rear wheels pushing you where you don't want to go." Truck tire chains are expensive but I operate on my "umbrella theory." If you carry an umbrella with you all the time it never rains. "Luck favors the prepared" and I have tire chains in the truck for all four wheels so we should have clear sailing up and back. Just the same, we are driving west to Tennessee and then north to bypass the mountains on this trip. It adds 50 miles and about an hour to the drive but my umbrella theory is just a theory and there's no point in taking unnecessary chances.
I still have my aversion to putting up Christmas lights outside. I found one of those Christmas laser projection lights on sale at Big Lots and stuck that in the front yard this year. I couldn't see going through all the trouble of stringing up lights before we left for Cleveland just so I could take them down when we got back. And there's no one to turn them on and off while we are gone anyway. Maureen has decorated nicely inside and it's very Christmassy. We also have our "Charlie Brown" pencil tree up this year.
Coming up with good Christmas gifts is getting much more challenging each year. It used to be as easy as walking down the Lego isle at Wal-Mart. But Liam is a young man now, almost 20 if you can believe that. Too old for Legos but way too young for a Christmas tie. And being an only child he tends to have anything he needs and quite a bit of what he wants. Although Liam is keeping up his end of the bargain, working hard and keeping up his grades, keeping his scholarship, and working a part time job over his breaks when we are not traveling. Maureen has always been impossible to surprise but I think I might have something for her this year she's not expecting. We'll see if it's something she really wants. And of course I'm the worst to have to buy for because if I really want it I probably have already gone out and gotten it. Everyone else is easy to buy for, I mean that's what gift cards are for, right? The only challenge is what cute gift or puzzle box you're going to put it in and a nice card.
Since I'm not going to have my computer with me over the holidays I just wanted to take a moment to say how appreciative I am for my friends and family and hope you all get the "Gift Card" of your dreams!
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Seasons Greetings and our best wishes for a great New Year to you all!!!
