A Change in Weather Dr. Juan Harrison
A Change in Weather
The gray and the paint horse kept going in and out of the barn, kicking up their heels, nipping each other on the rear. Snowfall in early January in East Texas can be confusing and exhilarating. Mama and I keep looking out at the pasture and across the creek. We couldn’t remember the last time a snow event with measurable snow had occurred. Jessie went to doggie heaven this past year and will miss all the fun playing in the snow.
I think about my mail lady and wonder how she’s doing today. Sandy always does a great job, goes the extra mile bringing things to our door when she doesn’t have to. The waste removal guys can’t pick up our trash today as the landfill has closed for a couple of days. I don’t envy them when they have to mess with an extra-large pickup. Hopefully, the snow will be gone by next week.
I lived up on the Canadian border for several years where snow was our companion from October to April as Lake Superior was a constant source of the white stuff. The novelty of it wore off in a short while. A Texan can only enjoy so much ice fishing, snowmobiling, snow skiing, ice skating, and anything else you can do on snow and ice. Vacations in the cold white stuff are okay for a while, but before long you get tired of bundling up and unbundling, everywhere you go. I think that helped convince my son and family to return to sunny San Diego after a couple of winters in Colorado Springs. He likes to jab me with his seventy degrees when it’s 98 in East Texas. At least I don’t have to fret about wildfires.
Our country is big enough to accommodate everyone’s weather tastes. Heck, Texas is almost big enough to cover the whole gamut. If you can cope with the heat, you’re likely to have a pretty mild winter. If it doesn’t hit a hundred in summer, count yourself lucky.
Texans are a funny lot. They like their four distinct seasons. We tend to get around 3 months of each, give or take a month. I wonder sometimes how my son’s crew like having pleasant weather most of the time in California. I think I’d tend to get bored. It’s kinda fun to reach into the closet for two or three months and pull out a coat. Still, right in the middle of Christmas you might need to put on a tee shirt during a 70 degree day.
In recent days we’ve begun to see an exodus from California warm weather and sometimes cold New Yok to Texas and Florida where folks are looking for less government and more mullah left in their pocket. They may miss their beaches, but we have some. They may miss some New York cold, but they can drive a few miles west over into New Mexico or Colorado and find a ski slope. And the good part is it won’t take em long to head back east to once again find good old mild Texas weather.
By Dr. Juan Harrison
