Friday, March 23, 2012

Some Like It Hot


One reason I live in and love the South? I dislike cold weather. I have wonderful childhood memories of playing outside on Christmas Day with toys I got from Santa Claus. And adult memories of grocery shopping in December in shorts. On the other hand, I remember the blizzard of March 1993. A real fluke. Thunder snow in drifts of a foot or more through central Alabama that year. The most snow I'd seen before thatother than on Christmas cardswas four inches.

Of course, whenever snow is forecast, everyone panics and the supermarkets run out of milk and bread. If you don't have four-wheel-drive, you'd best just stay home and have peanut butter sandwiches and milk for several meals. We're not the best drivers in winter weather down here.

One February I spoke by phone to a friend, a native Southerner who relocated near Chicago. It was another mild winter in Dixie and, knowing his dislike of cold, I couldn't resist a jab. "Have you plowed your garden spot yet?" I asked him, smirking. 

"Oh, what a cruel beast you are!" The mercury, he said, had not risen above 20 degrees there for days.

This year I think the thaw has come early everywhere. Our peach trees and crab apples have finished blooming. Our birch tree has leafed. Our blueberry bushes are loadedif a late frost doesn't get them.

It's sunny and 77! What's it like where you are?

8 comments:

  1. Hey, it was sunny and 77 at my house this afternoon, too!

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  2. It was 29 when I woke up this morning. I think it's up to a balmy 32 right about now. I. am. cranky.

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    1. So sorry, Ruth. Wishing warm sunshine your way soon!

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  3. We've been having warm weather in the 70's in PA, but this week we are back in the 50s and 60s. I'm okay with it. I like in between temperatures, not hot not cold.

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  4. I live in California, but I dream of living in Massachusetts and doin' the "snow thing." People have told me I'm nuts.

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    1. Hey, to each his own, but I bet the snow thing would get old in a hurry. Believe it or not, two winters ago, it snowed here 14 times! Weird.

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