January In November?

Sometimes it gets cold and sometimes it gets wet. It is when both happen at the same time that it gets serious. Today, it is timed either real good or real bad depending on whether you ski or not. It is 9:15 am and snowing. It is 20 degrees out. So far I have about three inches of the white stuff and the winter storm warning doesn't expire until Tuesday am. 4-8 inches is the prediction, but then just yesterday, they predicted about 1.2 inches. They lie to us, folks. By 11:00 I have accumulated 6inches on the north side of the house and counting.

According to "They," we are in for a cold wet winter due to something called La Nina. Looking outside, it is cold snowy and I can only find one sorrel. Gloves disappeared sometime last spring in that jumble that occupies my car on a perennial basis. The ceremony of the broken and frozen pipes is about to begin. As the heavenly orchestra conductor raises his baton, here it is, folks. I wasn't through with summer yet, either.

I would call a few friends today, but if they weren't real tardy, most of them are long gone to Arizona. The only traffic so far this morning on Lime Kiln was Hans with his snow plow. It's always ominous when Hans plows at three inches. It usually means he expects very heavy snow and wants to get ahead of it. While the weather bureau only predicts 4-8 inches, he would have waited if he believed that.

So here I am, bootless, glove less and considering how skinny the paper is on Monday, wondering if wet feet is worth the stroll to the paper box. I may just forgo my morning ritual and get my news via the Internet and of course, Huckleberries on line. Meanwhile, it continues to come down, even a little heavier than when I started this. Perhaps I've offended the weather gods.

***Weather Bulletin: The weather guessers are now predicting 5 to 8 additional inches of snow for this afternoon and evening along with gale force winds which is of course, a blizzard. Lakeland School District is still playing their cards close to the vest and will not make a decision on tommorow's schedule until the wee hours of the am. You can check at: lakeland272.org for the latest.