"Baby, Its Cold Outside."

[Smiley]

Yesterday it got to almost 60 F around here.Right now it is just over 50F. The snow is just about gone because it rained a lot yesterday and last night. Winter is far from over,I think that this is a practice run for spring.

[Edwin]

Today the sun was shining brightly, glissening on the snow. It was also warmer than it has been, but that is about freezing, 32 F. It has been much colder than that with the wind blowing a lot of the time, so what would otherwise seem really cold, now seems warm! I think, Smiley, you are correct about the practice run for Spring. In the 1970s I saw one January that it got so warm that all the snow melted off, but I think it snowed more after that if I remember correctly.

The weather has become mild enough, and our son-in-law has cleared enough snow that we are now able to drive all the way to our house, and we are leaving our car parked right here at the house. We could still get a reversal of our weather and end up getting our car standed here again, but now that February is upon us that is less likely.

Where we lived in the National Park, actually, Lake Chelan Recreational Area, which is like the park, and 12 miles from the park, but less restrictive than the park. Our weather there was affected by the coast with air moving in there right off the ocean, so we had warmer temperatures in the winter, and deeper snow as well. The weather was so mild there that this time of the year often it would warm up, start raining, and most or all of the snow would melt. Then our business would plumet as many people came there in our mountainous valley to go snow shoeing, and cross country skiiing, which would be all over with as soon as the weather would warm, and the wind would reduce the snow. Our supervisor there one late winter took a toboggan, and transported snow onto the trails so that people would be able to walk on snow with their snow shoes. He looked a quite a site out there with only his pants and shoes on. He was sweating even at that! He was so hot from working with temperatures high, but he got some snow on the trails!

[Smiley]

Today is quite a bit colder with snow squalls and some accumulation.The snow caused a lot of accidents with 4 fatalities just across the border.Its supposed to stay like this for a couple days and then get warm again.I think that a lot of people are going to be getting sick in the next week or two.

[Edwin]

I saw something about that on the internet news, Smiley. We have been having warmer weather, and sunshine part of the time. It was warm enough so that we didn't get too cold without heat for several hours because of the electricity being off. Carol did build a fire in the kitchen wood cookstove, but she let it go out. We are okay now with the wood pellet stove working again!

When I was a kid, and we were feeding cows/calves in a small feed lot that we had to fatten them a bit before taking them to market, we liked cold weather, because the animals kept more healthy during the cold dry weather. In the winter when if warmed up and got damp with periodic rain we had our cows/calves getting sick. It is interesting for us humans that sometimes we get sick in the summer, but more often we get sick in the winter. Now I am taking vitamins for a change, so maybe I will be healthier!