Brrr

My hot coffee is well appreciated this morning. It was cold last night and since I never turn the heat on in this bedroom, there is a chill in the air now that I'm up and moving. My snugly pink fleece robe that Wendell gave me last Christmas keeps me so warm when it's cold, and then my cozy comforter doesn't let me realize the chill till I'm on my feet.

To be sure, the weather report says it's 27 degrees in Butler. It has been well documented that we run 2-3 degrees less in the winter and several degrees more in the summer.
Our high today is only going to be 57 and the cold will stay with us at least till Wednesday. UGH.

So..... Hello winter. Not real happy that you are here, but we'll deal with it. Thanksgiving day is only 6 weeks away and Christmas is 4 weeks after that. Oh boy.. gotta get pulled together here.

I got my book by Randy Alcorn.. Heaven. It's really a good read. I'm about a third of the way through. When man sinned, the Curse touched all of God's creation. I am wondering if this is why we have such extremely cold weather and hot too? Once all of creation is resurrected, will we have winter as we know it? Scripture says God created seasons.. and I am certain that the leaves of the trees in autumn will be more than spectacular as we think of them today.
That reminds me.. it's not been a pretty fall.. the leaves sort of turned yellowy brown and then when we had the last windy rainy day, they landed in the yard.. and cold weather is upon us.

Folklore says that you can tell how severe a winter is going to be by the common 'woolly bear' caterpillar, though it's accuracy is only about 70% (so say the believers) .
Counting each of the 13 segments as a week of winter, the woolly bear 'reader' correlates the black segments at the front and rear of the caterpillar with the beginning and end of winter. The more black segments, the worse the winter, and vice versa, with the harshest weather occurring during the black-segment weeks. I've been told this winter is going to be severe according to the caterpillar.. we shall see. But don't look for me to pick up a handful of those bristly little buggers, as I did so as a child, but can't bear the thought of it now, let alone counting their black segments!
You'll just have to wait and see how much whining I do from here on to next spring.. aaacckk!