Weather Report

As expected, we had frost the other night, but the light covering I put over the tomatoes and peppers saved them. I guess we'll be able to pick a few more ripe fruits before the next freeze hits. The frost did a number on the potato vines that covered much of a flower bed in front of the house. The foilage was bright green when I went to bed and black when I got up. Now I''ll have to rake the remains out of the flower bed so I can chop it up with the mower.

For those of you unfamiliar with Texas weather, this can be a strange time of year. One day it will be in the forties, and the next it can be in the eighties. I've often gone Christmas shopping in December with the air conditioning running in the car, but there are also days when you need a heavy coat.

However, the weather changes here can't compare with one fall I remember in North Dakota. It had been a long Indian Summer, with temperatures in the seventies until early November. Then one day the sky was filled with ducks and geese flying south as hard as their wings would carry them. It was clear, sunny and shirt-sleeve warm at midday, but that afternoon, a gray cloud began to move in from the northwest. By evening it was freezing and starting to snow. By the next morning, it was blizzarding and the temperature was around zero.

I don't care if I never see that again!