Grand Avenue by Mike Thompson for January 12, 2022

Back in the ’60s when I was dating, a girl asked me if I was allergic to anything. I said, “yes, winter.”

Autumn is perfect. Winter isn’t so bad. Spring tends to slap a restraining order on my sinuses, then Summer steps in like a tag team match to finish me off.

Yep. Autumn is my favorite time of year. Winter is okay, the cold tends to wear on me after a while. Spring can be hard, when the fine pollen starts to fly. And Summer, is one very long battle of heat, humidity & trying to balance A/C needs against budget needs! All Hail Autumn!!!

After 15 minutes of Spring: A sweaty hellscape of bugs and sunburn….

Sub-freezing temperatures last week, shirt sleeve weather today. The February False Spring is early this year.

I like snow. I miss ice skating and skiing. I don’t like temps in the teens. 20’s is doable.

Oh, summer humidity STINKS!!

First: Fall for the beauty, past due cool down and fall sports. Second: Winter for peace, quiet, beauty of a new fallen snow and the Christmas holidays. Third: Spring, thankfully no allergies. Garden time and renewal. Ninety-ninth: Summer, unending heat and humidity. What hell must feel like. The only thing keeping it above one hundredth place is there is time to escape to the coolness of the mountains and a perfect trout stream.

If you can’t say something nice….

I don’t like Winter at all, but I can tolerate the cold Bundling up when it is necessary to go outside works well. It is the snow and/or ice that make it dangerous for me. Can’t hardly wait for Spring!

And then there is the Polar Bear Club with members doing a midwinter plunge into area lakes (after ice has been broken and before it can refreeze).

The best part of winter getting in somewhere out of it & setting fire to something.

I love winter in my part of Texas. It’s just about the only time of year I can go outside and be relatively comfortable. Right now, it’s sunny and 56 degrees, which is perfect for doing yard work. Of course, if I lived where I had to endure lots of snow and ice for months at a time, I’d probably feel quite differently.