Our area of the country has (so far!) been spared the really cold weather hitting most of the country from this latest winter storm. We've had a lot of 70+ days and fairly warm nights. By fairly warm, I mean it is only going down to the mid to lower 50's. That's like it's what we called *Indian summer* when I was a kid.
That was a sudden week of nice, warm weather not long after a blast of winter. But then we knew that REAL winter weather was going to hit us once Indian summer was over. We longed for it and yet hated to see it once it DID happen. I remember staying outside in it as much as I could because I avoided being outside once it was cold and snowy. I was one kid that always, always hated winter. I didn't like snow or the cold and ice that came with it.
I suppose that, once I found out we had little of that here in Alabama is when I started not to mind retiring here if I couldn't stay in Florida. Although it gets cold and I still avoid being out in that as much as possible, it's that we get so little snow. What we do get doesn't last longer than a day or two. We have a picture of Chewlee taken last winter on the one day we got snow on the ground. She was outside, playing with Baron in it and is bundled up and has snow all over her. The very next day, the snow (it was several inches deep) was all gone. That's how much it warmed up and was sunny. So far, we've had no snow but it's only January. February and March are still ahead of us.
When we lived in San Diego during the 70's, we were able to take the kids to *visit* snow by driving up to Julian, which was just a short drive away from the town we lived in on the outskirts of San Diego. Our town was around a 3000 ft. elevation and Julian was at 6000 ft. That was what was usually the *snow line* in our area. We once took the kids up there and they built a snowman on our hood. We then rushed down to the beach in San Diego and took pictures of the kids in their bathing suits next to the snowman on the hood of the car. Yes, we really did go swimming that day even though the ocean was really cold. But it was always cold since the Pacific is a much colder ocean than the Atlantic....at least in the Florida area.
I loved the tidal pools just north of our beach. The kids could see starfish (small ones) and even small octopi that were always around them. And the beaches had lots of those little crabs scurrying around. There were also plenty of mussels and other shellfish around. It was tough making the kids look but not touch. They didn't believe that octupus had a beak that could bite it they felt threatened. I'm just glad the small ones were very wary of anything coming close to them and could slip into nooks and crannies of the coral they were on.
It's 9:30pm and it's 61 degrees F. outside, with no wind so it feels actually warmer than it is. I won't need to turn on my electric blanket tonight... not until it drops down into the 50's. It does seem to feel a bit on the cold side to me around that level but it doesn't require much in the way of heating at least.
Time to say goodnight. Love you all. Be good. Be happy. Be kind. Stay warm. ***Hugs***
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