Winter Storm—Texas Style

Wow! They say Don't Mess with Texas, and they sure mean it! This weekend I am getting to experience my first North Texas ice storm. Yep, not exactly the best thing to be experiencing, but an interesting one.


Being a Yankee, I can handle the cold weather and snow. Ice, however, is a different ball of wax. And this particular storm left us with a few inches of ice of the roads. Needless to say, I decided to hunker down indoors rather than try to maneuver myself and my little car to work.

It looks like the rest of the weekend will be more of the same. The worst part about that? Today is my birthday! So, no going out anywhere special.

Hey, that's okay. Maybe I'll just order in!

— E

What's a Parka?

Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons

Today is really the first time I get to look at the weather and laugh not-so-quietly to myself.

Why? The mercury is reading seventy degrees today here in north Texas. And in southwestern Minnesota? Oh, that would be ZERO. Yes, degrees.

This is the evil moment I have been patiently awaiting all winter. The moment everyone in my former place of residence are freezing their booties off while I go outside and think, "Oh, gee, it sure is super nice out today."

Muahahaha.

My fella recently told me I will miss the snow, miss the seasons. I replied by telling him I had almost twenty-nine years of it; there is a good chance I won't miss it for a long, long while.

Yep, not for a long, long while.

— E

An Ode to Texas Weather

It's November, and the first chills of winter are finally being felt. In Chicago, that means temperatures in the forties. But, here in Texas, that means that weather in the fifties is cold.

Cold? Somehow for me temperatures in the fifties and cold do not correlate. Now, twenties, yes. Anything thirty and below I would consider cold. But, fifties? That is very hard for this midwest girl to comprehend. People walking around in coats and parkas when it is fifty is even more mind boggling. This is sweater weather, no coats needed.

That being said, I LOVE that the winter here typically stays above forty. Heck, when I visited here in February a few years ago it was in the seventies. Seventy, in February! Going back home to freezing weather (for two more months) was very depressing to say the least.

Plus, the fact that snow is pretty rare around here is a wonderful thought. I may miss it around Christmas, but believe me, I won't miss driving around in it or shoveling it. Snow as a novelty? I'll take it!

Yes, autumn in Texas has been very nice, and I sure am looking forward to the winter months. I hope there is at least one time when I get to call home and say, "Snow? Only eight degrees? Well, it's a high of fifty here today..." Ah, yes. That will be fun, indeed.

— E