When I went to get my mail today, I saw the daffodils in my flower bed. Full buds, lush green leaves, several inches high. How they got that big without my seeing them, I don't know, but there they were.
It's still January, and this is still Ohio.
We've had some snow, a few cold snaps, but not really any winter yet. It hasn't been really cold for a really long time (like a whole week.) We haven't had to go out and shovel the sidewalks. We've barely had to salt the roads.
It sounds like a good winter, doesn't it? Makes you wonder what I'm complaining about and why?
I can answer that. I've lived hereabouts my whole life. If we don't have weather in its 'prescribed courses' -- we pay.
We pay with day after day of tornado alerts. We pay with droughts or cold in July when the crops need warmth, or wild winds, or something.
When we have mild Januaries, we often pay with frigid Februaries and meltless Marches. In fact, we get snowed in in March, if we haven't got our fair share of the white stuff before then.
A green Christmas, any native can tell you, often means a white Easter. (Or opening Day, depending on how you reckon the seasons.)
Neighbors, family, and friends -- do not be like those precipitate daffodils. Do not creep out from your cover until it is the season for creeping. Do not be caught unprepared and unaware.
It may seem that winter has snuck in and snuck out, but chances are that wily old man is waiting for you to step outside in your shirtsleeves. He will slam your door in your face -- maybe using those March winds?-- and then he will layer you beneath the cotton flakes of snow.
BEWARE!
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