Baby, it's COLD outside!

Hi Neil! I haven't seen you around much lately. I hope everything is okay. Of course, it may be because I haven't been around much. If you don't know what cold feels like, you don't want to even VISIT here in the winter! If you can picture a walk-in freezer, like in a meat-processing plant or something, that's what it is like here in the winter. Well, that's what it's like if the wind isn't kicking up. When we have wind, the cold seems to bite right through your skin! Snow is the ONLY redeeming factor for the cold. At least, when we have snow, we get to play outside in it... at least until we start turning blue from the cold. I honestly was turning a bit blue around my fingers one time when I was little because I was having way too much fun playing in the snow to come in out of the freezing weather. My mother had to pull me back in the house. LOL But, snow seems to be rare here where we moved to. We get a lot of ice storms but not much snow. I think we've had maybe 4 inches of snow since we moved here in 2007. (I remember one year in Maryland when we had 3 snowstorms in 2 weeks that piled 5 feet of snow on us!) I can't count the times we've had ice storms here! We have sleet and freezing rain. Sleet comes down as ice, freezing rain comes down as rain, then freezes when it hits a surface. Freezing rain is the absolute WORST weather we can have because it covers the roads, covers trees and brings down tree branches, sometimes even bringing down entire trees from the weight. It looks like we're in for an interesting winter. I'm so glad that you don't get extreme weather where you live! Rain and hot temperatures can be handled, well, unless it's too rainy or too hot. I was very happy to hear that you didn't experience that flooding that they did in Luzon. It sounds like you probably have some of the best weather in the world where you are.

Yes, I guess that's it, feeling like you are inside a freezer for only 10 minutes, that is really so cold and you will chill inside if you stay longer there. I love to see the snow. I know some people also love it too, But I also think that even those who are used to it, sometimes complain. Here, at least, we are used to hot weather. And if snow starts to fall here, I think, that is something to be worried of. We are really fine over here, so you don't have to worry about us. It is really a better weather condition we have here compared to other places in our country.

I'm with you! I'd be happy with summer all year long. Maybe we should move to a warmer climate? LOL

I think you're right. We're going to have to learn to adjust to these new weather "patterns". The extremes are getting even more extreme. I'm sure it has everything to do with global warming and there's nothing we can do to change it. This is something that has happened over and over again in this planet's history. All we can do is try to get used to it and adjust.

yeah, the critters have an amazing thick coat for all it was a really hot summer - well, except for Oliver - don't know why his is still so thin

I can't remember a freeze before Halloween, either, but this one was way too close! It actually got down to 28F yesterday morning before finally climbing up into the 50's. All my plants outside that were looking sad because of the cooler temps are now drooping all over the place. My last remaining tomato plant is history now. I'm hoping that this means we'll have an early Spring but, with the weather being so crazy, it probably doesn't mean anything. Sigh!

You know, I noticed my husband's cat's coat has gotten incredibly thicker, much earlier than normal. My cat, Bean, is such a large cat anyway that I didn't really notice his coat getting thicker until I just looked at him. Yep, his is thicker, too. I guess I'll just look at the cats from now on to determine how the winter will be.

That sounds like our weather. We had two days in the 70's but it was near-freezing before and after that. If it was Indian Summer, it sure was a short one! If it's supposed to be a dry winter, I'll be happy. We haven't had much snow since we moved here but there sure has been enough ice. Even though it's pretty on the trees, it's so dangerous! I wonder if the dry winter means that the temps will be especially cold? I guess we can only wait and see, huh? I tend to side with the old folks who've been around awhile. They do seem to be able to predict the weather better than those officials. Hey, I was cleaning my office and came across a piece of paper where I had written down some birthdays of people here. I know it has nothing to do with the weather but it has significance. Your birthday is the same as dumbblnddzzy's! Mine is two days later. I'm planning a trip in April to celebrate my birthday with Lori's. Maybe we could all meet somewhere and all celebrate together? That would be so cool! Imagine the poor people around us, having to handle 3 Aries gals at one time.

That would be so much fun!! As the time gets nearer, why don't we try to plan for that? It would certainly make my birthday special, celebrating it with you two!

Cool! That works for me! I'll see what Lori thinks but I don't think she'll have any objections at all. I'm sure she'll be all for it. Awesome! Now, I can't wait for Spring! LOL

Hey, yeah! It's the government's fault! Sounds reasonable to me. You may even have a very valid explanation for it about the toxins in the air from wars, testing, etc. I'd like to know the real number of atom, hydrogen and nuclear bombs that have been tested by our government. They can't just have an impact on the ground; they have to be putting something into the air as well. Okay then. I'll blame it on the government. We both know they are to blame for most of our miseries! Aw, heck, let's say ALL of our miseries! Oh, the temperature went down to 28F here this morning. I should've waited just a little longer. It was 33 when I woke up then went down to 32. Then, it went back up to 34, then down to 28. Insane! (It's 45 right now.)

Yeah, I don't know whether to put my summer clothes away or not. It saves on storage space but my closet is bursting!

Hi, pergie! I'm kinda glad to hear that the strange weather is global but, at the same time, it's even more scary. Whatever the reason, I think we're going to have to get used to this unusual weather. It went down to 28F this morning after I posted this discussion. You know, something told me to dig them up yesterday. I had every intention on waiting until today, when my son comes over so I could have him do the digging. But, it was eating at me until I went outside and dug them up myself. Oh, it hurt my body plenty but I was very glad when they were inside. Now, I know the reason why it was eating at me. I think my subconscious or psychic vibes were in high gear and saw this coming. I honestly tried to ignore that little voice but it simply would not go away until I got up and brought the trees inside. (They're only about 5" tall.) I'm so glad I did even though I was surprised that they had lived this long because we've had some pretty cold nights recently, just not this cold. I even managed to save a banana tree I had planted out there. It definitely has not liked the colder nights but it's still hanging in there! Yes, I still have some poppy seeds. About half of them, actually. I'm keeping them in the freezer so they should be good to go. I want to throw some out there soon (maybe even today) so they'll, hopefully, grow in the Spring. By giving them such an early start, they just may make it even if we have an especially wet Spring. I hope I can have a garden as beautiful as yours! If they do grow and look nice, I'll definitely be taking photos!

I hate to say it but I agree with you. I think we're going to have a hard, cold winter, too. I don't mind snow but we get a lot of ice storms around here and I could live my entire life without them and be very, very happy. LOL I had to take my son to the ER last night and wasn't too bright when I grabbed my light coat. It got COLD! It actually went down to 28F yesterday morning. It's supposed to go down to 34 this morning but that was what it was supposed to go down to yesterday so it might be another below-freezing morning. I want SUMMER!!!

Well, then, you need to come here! It's now a month after I posted this discussion and I can tell you one thing, it's FREEZING outside! Our lake has frozen over. It does that every winter but this year it froze quite a bit earlier than usual. We've had snow four times so far as well as one episode of freezing rain and it isn't even technically Winter yet! I'm a bit concerned about how this season is going to be because I have the feeling we're going to get quite a bit more snow than usual. I like it cool but not freezing. Oh, I do like warm weather because I love gardening but too hot is something I like to avoid whenever possible. We get a little bit of everything where I live. It's just that we're getting a lot more "cold" a lot sooner than normal. Brrrrr!

I believe it, too. This entire year has been crazy. We had the above-normal rainfall this past Spring, WAY above normal. It drowned out my veggie garden, my first planting, anyway. I had to do a second planting later in the Spring so my garden wasn't as good as I was hoping. We've had the threat of snow here in northern Virginia but, so far, we've lucked out. It doesn't normally snow until December but our first threat of it this year was early in October. I don't like it! Nope, not one bit! I guess we'll just have to batten down the hatches and get used to it, huh?

Maybe, if you wore several layers of your clothes, it would help, since all you have are thin clothes. That is the way we should dress in cold weather, anyway, so if it warms up, we can take some layers off. I would like to think this is only a temporary thing but it looks like our unpredictable weather is here to stay. Maybe you should get some heavier clothes! I wouldn't want to go outside in only thin clothes, either.

Uh, mutt, I'm in Virginia. We've had snow four times so far. Today, we got freezing rain. It's been down to 18F so far and I'd have to say it's pretty much winter where I am, even though winter is still over a week away. I'm not sure where you are in Virginia but, here in the mountains, it's definitely winter weather! Our largest snowfall so far has been about 8" so I'm pretty sure we're in for a very snowy winter. Maybe it's just where you are?