Last Day of the Month

Time for another month, to show up, and hopefully it will be warmer, and begin to show us signs of what is to come. But the first few days look to be more of old man winter, very cold.

Weather dominates the conversations all day and almost every day, from people you call in other parts of the country or co-workers who are complaining about the cold and more snow again...or how bad are the roads now?

I was at the post office today and I know one reason postal workers sometimes go off the deep end...it seems almost every conversation they have involves the weather. I will admit it is an easy topic to start out a conversation with, but after about 10 customers that has to get old. Plus think of the poor carrier out their tromping around the neighborhoods, putting up with the un-shoveled walks or all the extra steps because all the shortcuts are no longer easy to navigate.

Of course the body shops and car garages love all the business, has they get to reap the rewards of our lack of patience on the road, or the fact we aren't paying attention when roads are slippery, which is like every day now. Along with places selling salt, shovels, snow blowers and roof rakes and anything else we need to move, melt or pile the white stuff called snow. Hopefully all these services and supplies boost our economy and generates more revenue for us all.

One thing I have noticed this winter is people are wearing shoes and boots more...believe it or not, I have seen the occasional nut still wearing their precious flip flops!

It dumb founds me how some people dress during the winter, how few clothes they are wearing. Shorts and no socks and jackets made for spring, not the 20 below windchill that is blowing across the parking lot or around the corner of the building. Is it just the generation we grew up in, or where we grew up?

I spend most of my childhood years in southeastern North Dakota, a place where the only trees were in a river valley or planted in a shelter belt to protect the livestock and farm on the barren plains of ND. You learned fast out there, that exposed skin on a day like today was not a good thing, so you put on everything you could put on, but still allowed you to move! So I went out to my wood stove this morning and realized that longjohns were needed for a day like today!

So to stay warm you need to dress warm, and try to keep your smile on your face, so it appears you are warm on the inside!