~and there will be no snowmen~

The skies are cloudy here today along the banks of the great Red River.  Our temperature sits at 63 degrees but it feels much cooler than that to me.  It won't be long before fall will have to hand off the baton to winter and the long siege of the "dark" will set in.  I know that each of the 4 seasons has been allotted the same amount of time on the calendar.  Yet it seems sometimes that certain ones last a whole lot longer.

Winter is one of them.

We aren't sure what our first winter here on the plains of Texas will be like but undoubtedly it will be cold.  People have been telling me all along that the cold winds blow nearly all of the time.  Ice and occasional snow will also make their presence known.  I'm really not too concerned about the snow part, having driven all of my life in snowy winter weather.  Pretty sure that I'm not too crazy about the ice part of it all but winter is what it is.  If you choose to live here, then you need to be willing to accept whatever the climate and weather conditions deal you.

We will make it.

Once I pretended to love winter but I'm pretty positive that I didn't really fool anyone.  It was in February of 2013 back at my old home in Kansas.  One cold Saturday afternoon I had the crazy idea to make my very first snowman.  There had just been a six inch snowfall on top of a couple of inches of snowfall already.  With the help of my son, I managed to construct a kind of/sort of snow person and I quickly named her Eleanore.  She was so cute.  I gave her a hat and scarf.  Her arms were constructed from a yardstick that my mom had left in the house when she lived there.  I was frozen after I finished her but at least for that hour's worth of time, I tried to enjoy winter.  I'm afraid it was short lived but at least I tried.

Hutchinson, Kansas~Eleanore and I
At age 57, I finally made my first snowman.
Yes, I know.  That is very sad.

A year later and 611 miles to the west of Hutchinson, I helped to make another snowman.  Mike and I decided one Saturday afternoon that we would construct our very own snow person.  In the mountains of Colorado there is no shortage of snow.  We had more than aplenty to work with. It was cold but not nearly as cold as it was that day back in Kansas.  Both of us worked hard to make ours and about an hour after we started, we were done.  The snowman wore my favorite Haven High School sweatshirt for the better part of the next 2 weeks.  I have to admit that it was fun but it still didn't convert me to join the "I love Winter!" fan club.

Mike and I standing next to our snowman in the front yard in Montrose.  It was a fun activity for a couple of people in their mid-50's to do that day.

There will be no snowmen in our part of Texas.  Generally speaking the average snowfall here is 5 inches per year and I have the feeling it comes in 1/4 inch increments.  In Montrose the average snowfall per year is 4 times the amount and south central Kansas is not far behind at 12 inches each year.  As crazy as it sounds, I will probably miss seeing piles of the white stuff.  Nah, I take that back.

I probably won't long for it.

Life is different here.
Winter will be just another sign of that.

We are alive, well, and thriving in the great state of Texas.
God continues to bless us, no matter where we live.