Return to Winter

It just doesn't seem right, this time of year. We had unbearable cold beginning in December, followed by an onslaught of storms right up until the end of February. I chickened out and escaped to balmy Fairhope (Alabama) for the month of February, only to return March 1 between barrages of sleet and snow. Luckily the storm predicted for March 2 missed this part of the state, and it's been thawing pretty steadily even since. It almost reached 70° yesterday and the pavements are wet with melted snow.

The warmth and sunshine prompted me to look at real estate ads on Craig's List. Moving house is one of my favorite change-of-season activities, particularly in the shift from winter to spring. And that's when the inventory increases. Should I rent or buy? Or just dream? I'm perfectly content where I live, but it is a rental and I have a nest egg I could apply to a mortgage for a home of my own I could modify to my taste. This place doesn't have access to outdoor space or a dishwasher. I found pictures of a few darling possibilities, and house hunting is more fun in person live than watching on television.

But the forecast is for a drop in temperature to the 20s and single digits over the next 48 hours, with rain and probably snow. I must lay in supplies so I don't have to go out the door tomorrow.  It's grey and grim outside and will not go above 40° today. There is time to do what I must before the cold sets in again--and the good news is that it will be seasonable next week, which is still cold but not brutally so, and every week thereafter it will continue to be warmer.

It's not predictable, as it once was. Due to the global climate change, which scientists tell us is irreversible, freakish weather is now the norm, and we must find ways to adapt to it. I know that with all my griping, I am one of the lucky ones, as I have a place to go to if it gets too cold for me--and, whatever I say, there are plenty of places in which the weather has become more of an enemy than it is in the Hudson Valley of New York. We can be pretty certain there will be a glorious spring, and summer (although early predictions are that it will be the hottest on record everywhere) is much more pleasant here than in the deep South. I like to say I love the seasons, but I admit too much of any one of them makes life pretty difficult.