Baby It's Cold Outside

June was cool. Everyday I was reminding myself of how blessed I was to be running in a normally hot month in 85 or 86 degree weather. It was like that the whole month, and I knew I was blessed.

July was normal. That means hot. I was reminding myself that winter is the reward for running through the summer. I told myself that often. I grinded it out day by day just trying to survive, make it through, keep at it until the weather changes, the summer ends

August was normal. That means it was hot. I reminded myself that winter is the reward for running through summer. Again. And some more. It will be worth it, I told myself over and over and over.

September was hot. September was very hot. September was brutally hot. September was our hottest month here in Mississippi in 2019. Once, on the 12th, I watched the local weather and the weatherman said that we had set record highs on ten of the past twelve days. The heat did not relent the entire month. We had high 90s and a few 100s all the way through.

October started hot. Then October became October. It cooled off and running was pleasant again. October was pretty much normal. That meant cool nights and mornings and warm but not hot afternoons

Now we are in November and the weather is doing crazy things. Normally we get our first frost about mid-month. We have had six or seven by today, the 13th. This morning, the low hit 18. What?!?!? Yes, 18. There are whole years that pass here without it ever getting that cold. I put my swim bag in the back of my pickup this morning and by the time I drove the .8 of a mile home, it had frozen. Wow, just wow.

Some people scream global warming. Other people scream NOT global warming. Still others shout climate change. I'll tell you what it is. Do you really want to know? O.K., I'll tell you. It's weather. Weather changes. Weather surprises you. Weather breaks norms, and it doesn't ask anyone's permission or advice. Even the best meteorologist can only predict the weather, with a modicum of success, for five days out. Anything beyond that, they tell us, is witchcraft. So relax. Enjoy it. Marvel at it if you must. Without the weather, what would we have to talk about? Not much around here.