The sun has been down for almost two hours and my windows are open. Crickets are having at it telling me that it is most of 70F/22C.

Florida boys, being considerate southerners, wishing to share our good fortune, and having a soft spot for people who live where weather is not generally supportive of human life, were trying to help you out by sending as much warm air as we could spare your way. Sounded like a good idea at the time. This weather thing is tricky.

The down side is that the warm moist air from the gulf is dropping its water, in the form of ice and snow, in a band from Texas to NYC. Sorry about that.

Thought I would bump this thread.

Spring is slowly arriving here. The picture was taken Saturday afternoon when the temperature was almost 50 F. The snow lines on the mountains is inching higher day by day while lower down in the marshland areas, the vegetation is slowly greening up.

Early signs were equivocal.

It is clearly spring here now. I have a nice flock of robins at the birdbath, the red bud trees are flowering gang-busters, the pines are dropping pollen, it was better than 80F this afternoon, and I saw at least on cutie wearing nothing but a string bikini laying out to catch rays.

Yes, some of you are still digging out from several feet of snow. But spring is coming. In just a month or two it will be above freezing most of the time. Let the good times roll.

At my latitude, the day is increasing in length by more that 2 minutes a day (should be even more up in the Frozen Tundra of Minnesota). The equinox is only a month away. I yearn for long summer days....

Guess you guys are gona hate me but I could use a couple more months of winter, I'm just getting good at skiing and could use more practice.

Hate you? No, I don't hate you. Montreal Canada seems like a fine place to be if you want your winters to be a bit longer than average.

I'm actually kind of torn between accepting that there are just some people who like cold weather, different strokes for different folks, and hiring a rescue team that will kick in your door, stuff you into a large canvas bag, haul you south, and systematically deprogram to counter the Stockholm syndrome you are suffering from in relation to the cold weather. It is natural for people who are detained, brutalized, and made helpless by the cold weather to identify with the cold weather, to admire and even to justify the power of the cold.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome

The later course would be expensive and tough but with gratuitous levels of exposure to semi-nude people, heat, sunshine, and generous helpings of suntan lotion, and hours of Jimmy Buffet and Little Feat I think we will get you deprogrammed ... or at least tanned and relaxed.

I wonder if I could make kidnapping people to semi-tropical locals into a business. You have heard of black helicopters and black-on-black outfits ... we are the well tanned guys in Hawaiian shirts.

The best situation is what the Southwest and southern California provide - deserts interspersed with high mountains - what the textbooks call Basin and Range. During the cooler months, if you want winter, just climb up into the mountains. When the snow isn't fun anymore, simply descend to the lowlands.

In Tucson, my old stomping grounds, it is quite possible to ski and play outdoor tennis in the same day, or swim, or golf. In the summer, when you can melt lead on the sidewalks, the nearby heights (up to 9,000 feet) provide a welcome, cool relief.

Right now, the hills of Ventura County are alive with the sounds (and sights) of fresh fallen snow. i went for a pleasant bike ride this morning.

When I lived in Hawaii we vacationed on the big island, in our opinion, at the time, any other state would be a bit of a letdown, and you could quite literally build a snowman and downhill ski in the morning and surf in the afternoon.

Nothing like the taste of mud to let you know the season. Better than three pounds is good eating for two or more Do you eat them or do you catch, fondle/torture, and release?

My asparagus is currently 10" tall, my potato plants have broken through the soil, my onions are going nuts. Woo hoo, it's spring in Houston!

-Blast