Weather Watch

A long time ago, we had snow on Halloween (don’t ask me what year) and the snow never did go away until Spring. That made for a long winter. I’m guessing this one is going to seem about as long. I’m already tired of stumbling upon hidden ice patches beneath the snow, and that’s going to go on all winter. The huge piles of snow that decorate the corners of most of our streets promise to be there till April. The onion forecast that called for a wet December is already a done deal so I plan to relax as much as possible during the rest of the month and I’ll just try to enjoy the holidays.

Speaking of the onion, since this is the year I retire from writing, I’m going to have to try a different approach to the doing the forecast, but I wasn’t quite sure how to go about it. Then I went into the clinic and to see Dr. Carrie, and she suggested that I do what she is going to do, and that is, do the onion forecast on the Sunday evening before Christmas. For the last couple of years, the Doc and I have coordinated and compared our forecasts and they have been remarkably similar and consistent. It will be really interesting this year to see what happens.

I just found out that our daughter, Teresa, is planning a trip home to see us over Christmas. She’s flying in from Albuquerque, and we will be glad to see her. She is the one who is mainly responsible for finding me this gig when she mentioned me to Don and Carol Harrell, who used to run the paper. She told them, “My dad is a former weatherman, and he has the potential to be a good writer.” Ah yes, one of the world’s heaviest burdens is being tagged as one who has ‘potential’. I think I must still have potential because over the years, I haven’t worn it out by any means. I’m kind of like the guy who said, “I’m standing out side. Doesn’t that mean I’m outstanding?”

Along the way, I’ve learned a few things; one of them is that Marianne’s activities are of great interest to the ladies that read this column. I thought that was kind of humorous so I cheerfully reported on the many times I bested her at golf and also bowling. To be fair and balanced, I also told how she rescued me in the kitchen. She came home to find me in the middle of baking some cookies. The recipe called for peanut butter and honey, along with flour and the usual ingredients. What a disaster that was. Nevermore! I guarantee that if I ever come upon another recipe that calls for peanut butter and honey, I will crumple it up and put it in file thirteen. Now all of these years later, and after a new hip and a couple of new knees, I’ve learned many more things. One of them is, “If your wife wants to drive, don’t stand in her way.”

And again in the interest of being fair and balanced, she has also learned. For instance, if a man says he will fix something, he will fix it! There’s no sense in nagging him about it every six months or so.

As far as the weather is concerned, I’m doing this up a little earlier than usual, so I’m not going to get too specific. I’m going to say that we should be in for some above normal temperatures that will take us to the middle of December.