REAL winter is on the way

I was up well before the crack of dawn this morning (definitely not my usual style) because I had to appear at an early morning meeting. It appeared to be very cloudy and dark -- but then it was before dawn..duh.

As I drove into town, cloud fingers tinged with pink began creeping across the eastern sky , and I thought of "rosy-fingered dawn" -- a quote I knew had to have roots in literature somewhere. It's from Homer's Odyssey, Book II, and is fairly overused -- but it was all my caffeine-deprived mind could conjure. Nonetheless, the sky was reddened in anticipation of sunrise as I walked into the meeting -- and full sun greeted me when I came out. I also thought of the old "red sky at morning, sailor take warning" adage -- which, much to my surprise, has its roots in the Bible, in Matthew 16:3.

Oh how the mind follows such trivial threads!

Anyway, clouds have covered all that red stuff now, at noon, and we're told a true cold front is moving in that will bring temperatures into the low 20s with highs in the 40s. And while much precipitation isn't expected, we may see snow flurries.

So I'm making soup from leftover prime rib bones: a thick, hearty beef and barley concoction that scented the house with garlic and onion last night as I was cooking the broth. I'll throw some flour and oil and herbs into the bread machine, and we'll feast, snug and warm with the wood stove glowing.

I'm putting extra blankets into the kitty houses to keep them warm, although their fur is thick and all of them have put on weight to get them through the winter. And we'll do the cautionary faucet drip to keep water moving through the pipes, and open cabinets to allow warmth into faucets on outside walls. Outside pipes are well wrapped already.

But the 20s is not really cold -- well, it is for here -- but I was in Indianapolis the year it hit -27 -- that is BELOW zero. The car engine block froze. THAT is cold. And I don't ever again want to live in that kind of winter weather.

So we'll remember our days in the frozen Midwest, Tony and I, when he lived in Chicago and I lived in Indianapolis. And we will sip our hot soup and put another log on the fire, and give thanks that REAL winter in Red Bluff means lows in the 20s, and not the below zero 20s, and that even those temps will be short-lived this year, as highs are expected to go back into the 50s over the weekend.