Okay, This is Cold!

Seems I talk about the weather a lot - and I do! I talk to my friends and they always ask "How cold is it?" I think it makes them feel better about the moderate amount of cold that they have in NJ or wherever. But this week - this is cold! Below zero air temperature and who knows what wind chill. Has not been this cold since 2005, as the local weather caster, Joe Snedeker, likes to point out - and we know how we can trust weather people! He did make one point - people are proud of their cold. It is a competition to see who can take home the imaginary prize for coldest temperature. I think today was minus 15! Okay, you win!

Reminds me of how cold it was when we were looking for this house - should have been a clue, huh? We had the one house we called the 'ice house,' whose driveway was so slick with ice we had to hold on to each other to get back to the car - human-chain style. This week my hubby and I were walking to the bottom of our hill to get to the car and were reminded of that incident as I slipped and grabbed him by the collar, chocking him, to get my balance. We were fine, but he did not appreciate being used as a prop to hold me up! To explain, we park at the bottom of the driveway so there is not so much to shovel when it snows (note 'when,' not 'if'). One detail - when the driveway is all ice, how do we get to the car? Slide, Charlie Brown, slide!

We bought a snow blower yesterday - finally. We give up.

Weather

Okay, we are in the mountains, so a person should expect some drastic changes in the weather, right? And we were prepared, since we had a vacation home up here for the past 5 years, right? Well, not quite....

It turns out that our little house on the hill is higher than much of the area, so we do get some interesting weather patterns. The sunrises and sunsets are gorgeous, and the clouds are so close and easy to observe. (Okay, we are not that high. But compared to NJ, we are.) It also turns out that we are on a weather line, which means that it can be sunny in the front of the house and snowing/raining in the back of the house. Remarkable! When we watch the weather on TV, we have to take an educated guess as to what we will get. I do know that whatever temperature they predict, we can usually subtract 10 degrees.

So how do you prepare for the weather? I know we have more sweaters in use than before, and dressing in layers becomes a fashion statement of necessity. I used to laugh at the locals who walk around in shorts and t-shirts as soon as the weather hits above 50 degrees. Now I understand - you really want to get out from under the heavy clothes by the end of a long winter. And, yes, you do get used to the cold. Not that you don't feel it; but it does not hurt so much, and when you go to warmer climes, you now laugh at the people bundled up! (It's only 45 degrees, so I don't need the coat with the sweater!)