Here I am, sitting at my desk, staring out the window that overlooks the Crow’s Nest on a cold and blustery day. My fingers are still numb after tending to the livestock and fruit trees during this unusually cold winter day. I wasn’t sure my two typing fingers could even peck on this here keyboard, but after grasping a hot mug of coffee, my hands are now nimble enough to do some jovial journalism. My feeble mind remains frostbit, sluggish as an arthritic grizzly coming out of hibernation. My aging joints creak like a rusty screen door, and my numb toes are dreaming of a sandy beach. I don’t know about all y’all, but I’ve had enough of Old Man Winter squatting down here in Texas. If my toes weren’t so cold, I’d volunteer to kick his sorry butt and send him back to Boston.
Speaking of cold weather, when did the meteorologists start naming winter storms? This is something new, isn’t it? I don’t recall snow storms having names last year, but we’ve had such mild winters in the past that I didn’t pay much attention to storms up in the Northeast. According to my extensive research, Jeeves says this is the third year winter storms were given proper names. I just don’t recall any of them, probably because when those Yankees were waist-deep in snow, I was snoozing barefoot in my hammock.
Do we need to name snow storms like we do hurricanes? Did Old Man Winter file a law suit against the “Weather Channel” claiming discrimination? Is there a reason weathermen can’t refer to a winter storm as just another blizzard? Will winter storm Juno go down in infamy like Hurricane Katrina? I doubt it, but you know how those Yankees like to brag about their snowfall. Here in Texas, we are simple folks who call storms for what they are, like the Blizzard of ’71 up in the Panhandle or the big Ice Storm of ’78.
